Malacañang should heed top government and military officials’ call for the exercise of stronger political will in fighting China’s continued aggression in the West Philippine Sea, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said on Tuesday.
“We must come up with a strategic framework to address China’s continued aggression in the West Philippine Sea,” Hontiveros said.
“The ‘political will’ against China’s adventurism should come from the very top,” she stressed.
Hontiveros made the remark after top government and military officials lashed back against China’s ‘provocations’ and after the Department of Foreign Affairs’ (DFA) filed a diplomatic protest over the Chinese Coast Guard's illegal confiscation of Filipino fisherfolks' devices in Bajo de Masinloc in May.
The senator said she sympathizes with these government and military officials who are looking to the top for leadership and policy direction to address China’s conduct in the vital sea lanes that it shares with the Philippines and other neighboring coubtries.
“The President himself must speak out and lay down the government’s plan in protecting our territories and exclusive economic zones from China’s adventurism,” Hontiveros stressed.
“We can no longer be reactive. We need to be proactive in defending our territory. Hindi tayo inutil (We are not useless),” she also said.
She said the government should consider a collaboration among the Departments of National Defense (DND), Foreign Affairs (DFA), Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Agriculture (DA) to create a framework and an official policy that must safeguard the country/s marine resources, territories and people.
In July 2016, The Hague’s arbitral ruling upheld the Philippines’ claim to sovereignty over its exclusive economic zone and debunked China’s questionable nine-dash line theory.
Hontiversos lamented that the executive branch has failed to craft and implement a clear and strategic diplomatic and military framework to assert the nation’s exclusive sovereign rights on the maritime region in the face of China’s continued intrusions.
“The protection of our natural resources and our fisherfolks must be a priority for the government. Our fisherfolks’ livelihood and safety are being threatened,” she pointed out.
“We are also losing at least P33-billion yearly due to China’s damage to our reef ecosystems,” Hontiveros stressed.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana earlier hit back at China for saying that the Philippines has been conducting “illegal provocations” in the West Philippine Sea, saying it is the Chinese forces who practice illegal incursions in the resource-rich region.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., has also tacken exception to the Chinese foreign ministry’s statement welcoming the Philippine’s decision not to join the United States-led joint naval exercises in the disputed region. He said ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin should not read too much into the government’s announcement.
“The Philippine position has been ‘consistent and clear.’ What is ours is ours under the arbitral award and no one else can tell us differently,” Locsin said.