Marcos: We cannot give up on South China Sea code
Published Oct 28, 2025 08:02 pm
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. holds a post-ASEAN Summit press briefing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Oct. 28, 2025. (Mark Balmores)
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—President Marcos has strongly stated that the Philippines cannot step back from pursuing the conclusion of the Code of Conduct (COC) for South China Sea, stressing that stopping would mean failure.
"Well, earlier I said that at heart I'm an optimist. And that's really my view and we cannot – we cannot give up. We cannot say that 'oh, there's no hope and we cannot – nothing's happening, we cannot move forward, we cannot resolve this thing'," Marcos said during an interview shortly after he finished his participation at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit on Tuesday, Oct. 28.
"Once we've done that, we failed. And we cannot fail because we have to find the way forward, we have to find a better way of dealing with these things," Marcos further said.
The President stressed that giving up on the Code of Conduct "would be a failure to the duties that we took an oath to protect and defend the Philippines and its people."
He vowed that the Philippines will keep on trying, and if it does not work, they will have to try something else.
"If that doesn't work, we'll try something else. But we cannot stop. We must continue and continue and continue until we find the solution," he said.
"Now, that is not an easy process by no stretch of the imagination is that an easy process. But that's what the process requires of us and so that is what we will do," he added.
How can a treaty not be legally-binding?
Marcos does not agree that the COC, once signed, would not be legally-binding.
"How do you make a treaty legally-binding? I don't know how that's supposed to work. If you sign a treaty, you are expected to be bound by it," he said when asked if Manila would accept that the COC is not legally-binding.
"I don't know how – if you would describe it as legally-binding. So, I don't think that really enters into the discussion," he added.
Xi Jinping invitation
Now that he is the ASEAN Chair, Marcos said he would certainly invite Chinese President Xi Jinping to Manila for the ASEAN Summit next year.
"Yes, that would not be bad at all. I would – I will certainly invite him. That's for sure," Marcos said when asked if the Philippine government would aspire for the Chinese leader to be in Manila next year for the signing of the COC.
"I will certainly invite him and I would make all of the efforts available – all of the ways available, the means that we have available to us to show how sincere – to President Xi Jinping how sincere we are that we would like for him to come to the Philippines. And he has been to the Philippines before," he further said.
Inviting him and getting him to attend the summit, Marcos noted, would already mean progress.
"And he knows, he has quite – a few friends here in the Philippines already. But, you know, that would presume that we have made some serious progress in our talks with them," he said.
"And so if we get to that point where President Xi will actually consider coming to the Philippines, it would mean that we have made significant progress. And that would be a great thing, that would be just a great thing," he added.