Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Friday declared that he will “strongly recommend” the termination of business agreement with any Chinese company that has involvement in China's controversial South China Sea reclamation.
(PCOO / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
“Yes, if I find that any of those companies are doing business with us then I will strongly recommend that we terminate that relationship with that company,” Locsin said in an interview over CNN Philippines’ The Source.
Locsin’s statement came following the latest sanctions imposed by the United States against Chinese individuals and 24 state-owned firms who had contributed to Beijing’s artificial island-building and militarization of the South China Sea.
The DFA chief, however, was careful in discussing what other specific punitive measures should be taken against Chinese companies complicit in China’s reclamation activities in the volatile South China Sea.
“I’m not sure if any of those listed companies are among those we are directly dealing with. I have to study the nature of those sanctions. On that specific issue, I’d rather wait for the two departments (Department of Transportation and Department of Trade and Industry) which are dealing with Chinese companies,” Locsin said.
One of the Chinese companies mentioned in the US State Department restrictions, the state-owned conglomerate China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), has won the bid to construct the $10 billion Sangley Point International Airport in Cavite last year.
The big-ticket project bagged by the CCCC under the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program is being undertaken in partnership with the Philippine-based Macroasia Corporation.