Senator Risa Hontiveros (Senate PRIB)

The Philippines should keep on communicating to both China and the United States (US) that the country wants a peaceful resolution of the conflict with Taiwan, or at the very least to maintain status quo, Senator Risa Hontiveros said on Tuesday, April 11.

This comes as China continues to stage simulated attacks by sending its ships and jet planes around Taiwan, a small country allied with the US. China claims Taiwan is its province.

Hontiveros said it is best that the Philippines continues to express such concern as both countries could say that it is not completely within their control if an accident should happen.

‘’And perhaps more importantly beyond our communications to the two giant countries, again as an earlier expression of the multilateral foreign relations that I hope we as the Philippines can explore, can promote, can discuss and arrive at starting with our like-minded ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) neighbor countries sana may (hoping there is) proactive na effort on the part of as many smaller countries in this region as possible para sabihing ayaw talaga natin ng gyera dito (we can say we do not want war),’’ she stressed.

‘’War is such a thing of the past. And we'd like to keep it that way. Anumang (Whatever) diplomatic at political quarrels or even fights natin, let us resolve it on those planes at mas i-secure natin ang (we must secure)  economic, ecological atsaka (and)  diplomatic wellbeing ng Pilipinas at ng ating rehiyon at mundo (in the Philippines and in the region and the world), she added.

Hontiveros took a dig at China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson who basically said that ‘’it was the US pursuit, these (Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement) EDCA sites, of selfish interests that could lead to more tensions and less stability in the region".

There are now nine EDCA sites.

The latest four new sites include two in Cagayan province; one in Isabela province;  and one in Balabac, Palawan.

The Philippines and the US started on Tuesday their war games under the ‘’Baliklatan’’ military exercises.

The lady lawmaker said it was China’s own ‘’selfish interests’’ that saw its vessels ‘’expelling Filipino fisherfolk from our own territorial waters, dredging our seabed to create and then militarize artificial islands in Philippine territory, harassing our navy and our coast guard and BFAR (Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources)".

‘’And let me not speak of her (China’s) actions vis-a-vis Taiwan whose sovereignty we also respect as part of our region,’’ she added.

Hontiveros expressed hopes that other  countries should "help de-escalate, cool the tensions between the US and China especially around Taiwan".

‘’Upholding the right of the Taiwanese people to live in peace and under the political system that they determined democratically at para hindi magkaroon (so there will be no) intentionally, and just as bad, accidentally, the outbreak of any hot conflict around Taiwan, in the West Philippine Sea or in the greater South China Sea,’’ she said.

Hontiveros said the EDCA that would not solve the problems of the country.

‘’And after all, the issues in the South China Sea involve more than just the US and China, and the disputes in these waters shouldn't be settled only or even primarily by these two giant countries,’’ she pointed out.

‘’Moving forward, despite the fact na nagdagdag ng mga (there are additional)  land-based EDCA sites. I still think it is in our better greater longer term interest na maghanap ng isang (to find one) concrete expression of multilateral foreign relations especially on the waters in and beyond the West Philippine Sea in the greater South China Sea, that will better serve Filipino and even regional and global interests,’’ she added.