Anyone, including former president Rodrigo Duterte, who can help diplomacy in this economic zone of ours, exclusive economic zone (EEZ) would be a big help, Senate President Juan Miguel F. Zubiri on Thursday, August 3, said.
Zubiri emphasized this following the “cordial dinner” with President Ferdinand R. Marcos last night (Wednesday, August 2) at “Bahay ng Pangulo” during which the Chief Executive revealed to senators that he met with Duterte who gave details of his recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
During that Duterte-Xi meeting, Duterte told Marcos that they asked Xi to “look kindly” at the Philippines.
Queried on whether Duterte expounded on his (Duterte’s) “look kindly” remark to Xi, Zubiri said President Marcos simply said “wala (none), he just mentioned that and it was the end of the topic actually, and I don’t know any of the information.”
For his part, Senator Christoper “Bong” Go, a political ally of Duterte, backed proposals to appoint Duterte as special envoy to China.
Go said Duterte met with President Marcos at the Malacañang Palace a few days ago to update the latter on what were discussed during his personal visit to China where he was able to meet China’s president Xi Jinping.
Go highlighted Duterte’s strong rapport with the Chinese government and their trust in him as a key player in managing relations between the two nations.
“Magkaibigan po sila, magkakaintindihan sila at madali silang mag-usap (They are friends, they understand each other and they could talk to each other),” he added.
The Senate passed Tuesday a resolution giving the President five options on how to deal with China’s aggressive incursions in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) and the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruling that favored the Philippines as against China.
That ruling rejected China’s historical claim over the vast portions of the South China and favored the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
The Philippines has been filing to no avail diplomatic protests over the aggressive tactics of the bigger Coast Guard vessels of China against the smaller Philippine vessels and Filipino fishermen and other forms of territorial incursions in the Philippine’s EEZ.
Aside from Duterte, Zubiri said another good choice as special envoy could be Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, a former House Speaker and former Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary.
“It could also be Alan, why not Senator Alan as well to help in the back channeling since he’s quite close to some of the officials there being the former Secretary of Foreign Affairs?” Zubiri asked.
“And we, of course, the president knows our stand on Senate Resolution Number 718 we passed the other day, but we didn't really touch much of it because it was very cordial and very light dinner,” he pointed out.
“The President didn’t ask about the resolution. I think he knows that we had a meeting earlier during the week with the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. So whatever the Secretary of Foreign Affairs divulge to us have the imprimatur of the President. I’m sure,” he added.