Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a frontliners’ group on Tuesday backed President Rodrigo Duterte if war is inevitable against any aggressor to protect the country’s patrimony, interest, valuable resources and dignity.
Lawyer Leo Olarte, Lingkud Bayanihan Frontliners Movement president and ex-Philippine Medical Association president, emphasized that all Filipinos should decisively rally behind the President should he decide to take the final option and declare war against to protect the country’s sovereignty at the disputed West Philippine Sea.
“We fervently pray that the fluid situation at the West Philippine Sea will never ever lead into a shooting war in the region. Nobody here wants to go to war unless inevitable. Although we always rely on diplomacy to settle international disputes, sometimes diplomacy also has its limits,” he said.
Olarte said every Filipino must prepare for such a possibility. “The West Philippine Sea is clearly ours. The Hague Decision on the United Nation Convention on the Law of the Seas favoring the Philippines is final,” he maintained.
In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague unanimously ruled in favor of the Philippines and rejected China’s sweeping claims over virtually the entire sea areas falling within the “nine-dash line.”
The tribunal also found that China caused “severe harm” to the marine environment because of its land reclamations.
Despite the milestone ruling, Beijing still refuses to acknowledge the Philippines’ victory.
The President earlier raised fear that it would be bloody should he threaten to “stake a claim over the West Philippine Sea. The United States of America warned China against increasingly aggressive moves at the West Philippine Sea and even reminded Beijing of Washington’s obligations to its partners.
An armed attack against the Philippines’ armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific, including in the South China Sea, would trigger US obligations under the US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty, it threatened.
