Romualdez echoes policy statement on WPS: 'Atin lahat yan'
At A Glance
- House Speaker Martin Romualdez stand by Presiden Marcos' policy statement that the West Philippine Sea (WPS) "is al ours".
House Speaker Martin Romualdez (Speaker’s office)
"That is all ours."
House Speaker Martin Romualdez repeated on Friday, Nov. 10 this policy statement from President Marcos regarding the West Philippine Sea (WPS) during “The Defense Forum” organized by the National Defense College of the Philippines Alumni Association at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.
"I stand and Congress stands with the President...atin lahat yan [WPS], that is all ours. We have no claims. It's our territory," Romualdez said during the question and answer portion of the event.
"So Congress stands behind the President in his policy statement eh. Wala kaming claims, atin yan (We don't have claims, that is all ours). And the House of Representatives will support that 100 percent," he said.
Romualdez, leader of the 300-plus strong chamber, gave this remarks in the backdrop of continued aggressive moves by China in the WPS.
During the same forum, the House chief vowed that the government will maintain the presence of BRP Sierra Madre--a repurposed World War II-era vessel--in the WPS.
BRP Sierra Madre wax purposefully ran aground in Ayungin Shoal in 1999 to serve as the Philippines' permanent outpost there.
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"We will continue to maintain its presence there and we will always assert that. We are not going to give that up in any way," Romualdez, Leyte’s 1st district congressman, said.
"We will always protest, we will not capirulate because that is a policy. That's it, non-negotiable yan (that is non-negotiable), we wont give that up," he said.
"Of course when it comes here, we will always hold the line...we will always attest that it is ours," he further said.