A ranking House of Representatives member is asking the Filipino people to stand behind President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. as the Philippine government addresses what the government has called an "act of aggression" by China in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
"We condemn in the strongest terms these acts of aggression,” Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said in a statement Wednesday, Feb. 15.
Barbers was referring to a recent incident in the WPS wherein a Chinese vessel directed its military-grade laser at a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) ship.
“We call on our fellow Filipinos to stand united and rally behind our President as he expresses our frustrations and protests diplomatically. We cannot anymore keep quiet and endure in silence," Barbers said.
"We have suffered long enough. Our fishermen have been directly victimized. As if it was not enough, they now provoked our military and committed an act of military aggression,” he added.
"We call on our allies to help us in the implementation of the arbitral ruling that gave us territorial jurisdiction over the seas now being occupied illegally and without an iota of basis neither in history nor in International Law, by China,” the veteran solon said.
In July 2016, the Philippines won its case before the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) against China's expansive claims in the South China Sea (SCS), which includes the WPA.
Specifically, the PCA invalided Beijing's expansive nine-dash line claim in the SCS.