Malacañang on Tuesday expressed that it will continue to rely on good faith in dealing with the Chinese, despite renewed concerns over Beijing’s testing of a massive dredging ship, designed to boost China’s land reclamation capability, at disputed islands in the West Philippine Sea.
“Well, the President [Rodrigo Duterte] recognizes the principle of good faith in international relations. China has told the President they do not intend to reclaim Scarborough, and we leave it at that,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a briefing.
“We need to rely on good faith because otherwise there would be no predictability in international relations,” Roque added.
The Defense Department on Monday expressed its concerns after Beijing started testing its dredging ship—with a warning that the Philippines would track its activities closely.
The ship, Tian Kun, has a deck the size of nine basketball courts, and would become Asia’s largest dredging vessel.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea or West Philippine Sea, through which more than $3 trillion of seaborne trade passes each year.
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have conflicting claims in the area.
Roque also maintained the Philippines has already gained victory when an arbitral court ruled that the country has exclusive sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea and that China’s “nine-dash line” policy is invalid—a ruling repeatedly rejected by China.
“We’re not just trusting. We have a decision, the last time I checked. And that decision remains unchanged,” he said.
“It has said that the artificial islands are form part or built in our [EEZ, exclusive economic zone] and under the UNCLOS [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea], only coastal states can build them,” Roque added.
Duterte’s renewed ties with China has led to “new heights” in terms of Philippine-Chinese relations and has resulted in “very tangible results, particularly economic investments,” he said.