Cagayan de Oro City 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez says China should act like a "big brother" to countries comprising the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including the Philippines.

Rodriguez had this to say over the weekend as he urged the ASEAN and China to support the proposed completion of the Code of Conduct on the South China Sea by next year when Manila hosts the next ASEAN Summit.

“I call on all the leaders of these nations to support the finalization of the draft code. I urge all their ambassadors to convince their respective governments to finalize the document and to sign it next year in Manila,” he said.

Rodriguez stressed that the finalization of a code for peace, stability and progress in the region rests largely on China “because it is claiming almost all of the South China Sea, including waters that belong to smaller countries like the Philippines".

“Beijing should play big brother to its ASEAN neighbors. It’s the only way to have this code of conduct in place by next year,” noted the veteran solon, who has never been afraid to call out China on its incursions at-sea.

Rodriguez says it is in the interest of China and ASEAN members to sign the document, which would govern their actions and activities in the South China Sea.

“The code is envisioned to be the guidepost for peaceful co-existence among China and ASEAN members, especially those with overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea (SCS), like China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Brunei,” he said.

On Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he attended the ASEAN Summit and Related Summits, President Marcos xpressed the hope that the proposed code of conduct would be signed in 2026, when the Philippines hosts the next regional conference.

“How confident am I? Well, earlier I said that at heart I’m an optimist. And that’s really my view and 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,” he said.

Marcos acknowledged that finalizing the code is “not an easy process".

“We just keep trying. If this doesn’t work, we’ll 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.

China and ASEAN started negotiations on the proposed Code of Conduct in 2018.

In April this year, then Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said the two sides have agreed to finalize the document by 2026 despite contentious issues.

"Well, we are all politically committed to achieving, having a code by next year. But we will see. We will try our best,” Manalo said.

“But as the President said, we still have to address important issues such as the scope of the code, also the nature of the code and its relation to the declaration of the principles adopted in 2002 on the SCS," he added.