Senator Panfilo Lacson on Monday, April 5, said Filipinos "should stand four-square" behind Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana for making known his strong position against China’s incursions into Philippine territory.
(SENATE OF THE PHILIPPINES / FILE PHOTO)
Lacson, chairman of the Senate national defense and security committee, appeared piqued when China belittled Lorenzana’s defense of the country’s sovereign rights over the Julian Felipe Reef (Whitsun Reef) where more than 200 Chinese militia vessels were spotted late last week.
A Philippine Air Force (PAF) was warned by China to stay away from Julian Felipe Reef when it flew near the reef. China claimed Julian Felipe reef to be its territory.
Lacson recalled that before this, China occupied the Mischief Reef during the period 1994 to 1995; and the Scarborough Shoal, which China cordoned off in 2012.
Scarborough Shoal, or Bajo de Masinloc, is about 120 nautical miles west of Zambales province in Luzon.
‘’All these have legal basis under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the existing arbitral ruling in our favor,’’ Lacson said in a statement.
‘’A sad reality is that while the ruling is permanent, it is unenforceable,’’ he added.
Lacson said the situation is made worse "when Philippine leaders and foreign policy decision makers resort to acquiesce bordering on implied derogation of our sovereignty."
‘’Even amid this pandemic, such 'health crisis opportunism' being applied by China does not speak well of the assumed trust and goodwill between the two Asian allies,’’ he stressed.
‘’That said, our country is losing tens of billions of pesos a year in 'stolen' aquatic resources, not to mention the wanton destruction of corals within our Exclusive Economic Zone (EZZ) that threatens our food security,’’ he pointed out.
Lacson conceded that the Philippines is a "militarily weak country" and could not match China's military and economic power.
This fact, he said, should prompt the Philippines to resort to establishing stronger alliances not only with other Asia-Pacific neighbors like Australia and Japan and the other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, ‘’but our long-standing western allies like the United States and Europe,’’ he said.
‘’Only through a clear message that the presence of 'balance of power' in the West Philippine Sea can help us in this regard," he reiterated.