spot_img
25.6 C
Philippines
Sunday, February 9, 2025

Teodoro says Beijing ‘one to blame’ for conflict in South China Sea

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. pointed to China as the one escalating maritime tension in the South China Sea, largely due to its expansionist agenda, which affects the Philippines’ exercise of its sovereign territorial rights in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

“What China is doing makes the Philippines, compels the Philippines to defend itself, assert its right against China. So, they have themselves to blame,” Teodoro said in an episode of Hoover Institution’s “Battlegrounds with H.R. McMaster” aired on January 23 (US time).

- Advertisement -

He described China’s saber-rattling measures in the vast international waters as “forcible stealing” of the Philippines’ “sovereign rights” to exploit resources within its legally and internationally recognized exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Teodoro argued that China was exerting its economic might to deliberately “change narratives,” subvert the Philippines’ domestic economy, and “influence others not to side with the Philippines” on this issue.

This includes Beijing’s outright disrespect for the 2016 Arbitral Ruling, which declared that its nine-dash-line theory has no legal basis. Teodoro said it’s if China was telling the world this document was nothing but “a scrap of paper.”

Recently, China disturbed peace in the South China Sea again by deploying its naval and coast guard assets to intimidate and harass the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and other Filipino-staffed vessels from navigating the disputed waters, according to Teodoro.

This weekend, a China Coast Guard (CCG) vessel near Zambales used a long-range acoustic device (LRAD) to harass PCG’s BRP Cabra, which was patrolling the area. The LRAD emits high-decibel sounds that can cause pain and hearing damage.

“In order to change the global international legal regime, they are occupying it by denying access to the area through swarming vessels with euphemisms of their People’s Liberation Army Navy… And this evolved into atoll conflicts in the area and particularly in the area of Scarborough Shoal,” Teodoro said, referring to Bajo de Masinloc in Zambales, which is under the Philippines’ EEZ.

LATEST NEWS

Popular Articles