Officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) met on Thursday with their counterpart from China for the 23rd Philippine-China Foreign Ministry Consultation (FMC) and 7th Bilateral Consultative Mechanism (BCM) on the South China Sea.
The DFA stressed that the FMC and BCM meetings in Manila sought to strengthen the goodwill between the Philippines and China amid tensions arising from the disputes over territorial waters in the South China Sea.
Among those present were Philippine Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Bilateral Relations and ASEAN Affairs Maria Theresa Lazaro and China’s Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong.
Also joining the meeting were Philippine Ambassador to China Jaime FlorCruz and Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian.
Lazaro revealed that she had communicated with Sun weeks ago regarding “maritime issues.”
“I note that we have spoken already through our communication mechanism for, on maritime issues and I appreciate the brief and candid exchange we had some weeks ago,” Lazaro said, without elaborating.
It can be recalled that the Philippine government filed a diplomatic protest or note verbale against China in February after a Chinese coast guard vessel pointed a laser at the Philippine ship off Ayungin Shoal.
The DFA and the Armed Forces of the Philippines have released statements of protest about the continued presence of Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea and within the country’s exclusive economic zone.
During the meeting, Sun did not delve into details regarding the issues that the Philippines is currently raising in connection with the West Philippine Sea. But the Chinese official pointed out that China and the Philippines, despite their differences, should talk like friends in accordance with the consensus reached by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and President Xi during their meeting in Beijing last January.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. meanwhile said that the Board of Investments (BOI) has been monitoring 90 active investment leads from Chinese companies across multiple sectors following his state visit to China back in January.
To attract more investments in the energy sector, as well as ensure sufficient power supply and lower electricity costs, the President said his administration amended the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Renewable Energy Act, which removes foreign ownership restrictions for certain Renewable Energy (RE) generation projects in the Philippines.
