WASHINGTON, DC, USA—President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has urged China to finally sit down with the Philippines and talk about the Filipino fishers' natural fishing grounds. President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. (Photo courtesy of Malacañang)
Marcos said in an interview en route to Washington DC on April 30 that he asked China if they can finally discuss the fishing rights of Filipinos, which he tagged as the country's priority agenda at the moment. He said that China has agreed to the start of talks on this matter. "So binalik ko yung usapan sa fishing grounds. Sabi ko, puwede ba pag-usapan na natin yung fishing grounds dahil ito naman talaga ang first priority natin for now, (So, I mentioned again the issue on fishing grounds. I told them if we can finally talk about it because this is actually our priority for now)," Marcos told reporters onboard the presidential plane going to the United States. "I mean, of course, the overall priority is to safeguard our maritime territory but the — when you go down into the details, the most immediate, let’s say, concern are the fishing rights," he added. "That’s what we have to decide and they have agreed again to sit down," he further said. This came after the latest incident in the South China Sea where a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessel and Chinese Coast Guard ship nearly collided, after the latter kept on shadowing the patrolling PCG vessel. Marcos said he has already taken this up with China and expressed that he does not want to see a repetition the latest incident. "I did. I have already," he said when asked if he has reached out to China after the sea incident. Marcos talked with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang who called on him in Manila last April 22. "I asked him— you know, that this is the kind of thing that we want — we’re hoping to avoid, that this time it was a little more dangerous because malapit na sila e (they were already so close)," he added. He reiterated to the Chinese side that the Philippines wants to avoid incidents such as the recent one which "can cause casualties on both sides." The President also urged them to finally come up with a counterpart team that would serve as the Philippines' direct line to China in addressing sea incidents in the West Philippine Sea. He urged them to finalize the members of the Chinese team, so they can finally establish the direct link between both countries. "Hindi pa natin nabubuo (It wasn't formed yet), we’re waiting for China to give us the details kung who will be the team at their end," Marcos said. "Yung sa Pilipinas tapos na (Our team is complete). We already have the team --- we have already submitted the names, even the telephone numbers of these people so inaantay na lang natin yung counterpart ng team natin from China (we are now just waiting for the Philippine team's counterpart from China)," he added. The chief executive said he has tasked the PCG and Department of Foreign Affairs to put together a map the fishing grounds that are under the Philippine territory. "And we’ll see what they say when we give them our proposal," he said.