The government is looking at filing charges against individuals who twisted facts about the military’s rotational and resupply missions in Ayungin Shoal and parroted propaganda lines peddled by China.
“We’ll work with the Department of Justice to take a look at if we can file libel cases or at the very least, slander cases, against these individuals,” National Security Council Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya told reporters on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Senator Risa Hontiveros has filed a resolution seeking an investigation into the claim of a “gentleman’s agreement” between former President Rodrigo Duterte and the Chinese government. She said this has restricted the repair and rehabilitation of the BRP Sierra Madre on Ayungin Shoal.
In Washington, Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping clashed in a telephone call Tuesday about US trade restrictions on technology and on Taiwan, but they looked to manage their tensions, with two top US officials heading shortly to Beijing.
The nearly two-hour telephone conversation was the two leaders’ first direct interaction since a summit in November in California that saw a marked thaw in tone, if not the long-term rivalry, between the world’s two largest economies.
In Manila, Malaya also slammed the Chinese foreign ministry for insulting Filipino and foreign journalists covering the Ayungin resupply missions.
“The only way, the only response, on how you can fight disinformation is through the truth,” Malaya said.
“What was mentioned by the Chinese Foreign Ministry is an insult to our Philippine Journalists who are independent and are not in any way being manipulated by the Philippine government,” he added.
For her part, Hontiveros said: “It is our duty to fortify the BRP Sierra Madre. Without it on Ayungin, we effectively give way for China to illegally occupy what is ours. If we stop reinforcing the Sierra Madre, we not only lose a crucial, strategic outpost, but also fail to defend our sovereignty.”
The White House said Biden pressed Xi to ensure “peace and stability” across the Taiwan Strait ahead of the inauguration on May 20 of President-elect Lai Ching-te.
China has denounced Lai, a longtime supporter of a separate identity for the self-ruling democracy claimed by Beijing, but US officials have been cautiously optimistic that China’s military moves ahead of the inauguration will not go beyond past practice.
In the phone call, Xi told Biden that Taiwan remains an “uncrossable red line” for China, according to state media.
The United States has voiced growing alarm over rising Chinese moves against the Philippines in the dispute-rife South China Sea.
The Biden administration, while maintaining dialogue with China, has put a strong focus on supporting allies.
Amid the diplomatic flurry with China, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will pay a state visit to Washington next week, with President Marcos joining for three-way talks.
In her Senate Resolution No. 982, Hontiveros stressed that if the agreement is true, it would be tantamount to a surrender of Philippine sovereignty.
“And, in the words of former Philippine Navy flag officer-in-command Eduardo Santos, an act of treason,” pointed out Hontiveros.
“This ‘gentleman’s agreement’ is treasonous,” she stressed. With Vince Lopez and Macon Ramos-Araneta
