President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. brought up the issue of territorial disputes at-sea in his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his just-concluded state visit to China.

This was confirmed by House Speaker Martin Romualdez following his arrival back to the country with President Marcos. Romualdez was part of Marcos's official delegation to China during the latter's state visit drom Jan. 3 to 5.

"Well the President was able to personally convey to Presidentnt Xi Jinping, the concerns of the Filipinos, the fishery issues. The maritime claim issues," Romualdez said on Thursday, Jan. 5.

According to Leyte 1st district congressman, Marcos and Xi discussed these sensitive issues "in an atmosphere of mutual respect and equality".

"These very sensitive issues but it was brought up, you know, you know in an atmosphere of mutual respect and equality and that's why this State Visit was so successful because we could see the rapport, the personal exchanges between the two presidents, and the confidence," he said.

Romualdez said the two leaders had "sincerity" in each others' words and noted that this will "go a long way in addressing all these issues, whether they be contentious or not moving forward".

"So this definitely means a lot to the relations with the People's Republic of China," the Speaker added.

He further said that the maritime disputes aren't the be-all, end-all of Manila-Beijing relations.

"While we have some issues that have challenging concerns like our maritime issues, that does not
represent the totality, the entirety. We have a vast range of issues and concerns and common interests whether it's finance, trade, culture, education, and political," he said.

"So we have many, many areas of agreement. So we want to further strengthen that by direct engagement at the various level," said Romualdez.