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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Protecting EEZ is vital to PH future — Manalo

Protecting EEZ is vital to PH future — Manalo

Published May 8, 2024 03:16 pm

Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said Wednesday, May 8, that protecting the Philippines' rights over its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is vital to the country's and to the Filipinos' future.

In his speech at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada in Vancouver, Manalo said the West Philippine Sea issue is of "high national importance" to the country, considering that the Philippines is the 5th country with the largest coastline and 60 million of Filipinos live by the coasts.

So, for the Philippines, he said, protecting the EEZ as well as ensuring an unimpeded access is critical to safeguard "the livelihoods of our fisherfolk and preserving marine resources vital to our future.

"Far more than the noise of politics, it must be understood as an issue about our maritime identity, our people and our future," Manalo added.

The country's top diplomat asserted the Philippines' rights over the West Philippine Sea, which China claims to be its own.

He said the 2016 Arbitral Award on the South China Sea "definitively settled the status of historic rights and maritime entitlements in the South China Sea."

The award also declared "without legal effect claims that exceed entitlements beyond the geographic and substantive limits of UNCLOS," he added.

Manalo is on a tri-city tour in Canada to advance the Philippines relations with the former.

He expressed appreciation to the Canadian government for its support to the Philippines in its fight for sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea and in upholding international law.

Like the Philippines, Canada is also among the founding members of the United Nations, the treaties of which help in the assurance of the rules-based order in the contested waterway.

"In standing by the rules-based order as partners for peace and prosperity in the Indo Pacific, including in the South China Sea, the Philippines and Canada are reinforcing a mission that has been set for our relationship from the beginning," he said.

"Our adherence to the rules-based approach as the key to the management and resolution of the overlapping claims and maritime disputes in the South China Sea, stands on this rich ground​," he added.

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Exclusive economic zone Enrique Manalo
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