Leni tells gov’t to press arbitral victory vs China
BY WENDELL VIGILIA and ASHZEL HACHERO
VICE President Leni Robredo yesterday decried what she called the “five years of missed opportunities” under the Duterte administration, as the country marked the fifth anniversary of its victory against China’s claims in the South China Sea.
The Netherlands-based Permanent Court of Arbitration, in a ruling on July 12, 2016, invalidated China’s sweeping claim in the South China Sea, to include the West Philippine Sea, under its so-called nine dash line theory.
“Since then, national leadership has yet to fully flex the ruling as an instrument to pursue our national interests, failing to invoke it in strong enough terms in the forums that matter most. Our fisherfolk remain unable to enter areas that have been the source of livelihood for generations of Filipinos,” she said in a statement.
President Duterte has maintained friendly relations with China since he assumed the country’s top post on June 30, 2016. His embrace of China and reluctance to criticize its foreign policy or maritime conduct has been controversial. He has long maintained it was pointless and dangerous to challenge China.
China claims most of the South China Sea which is also contested by Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, aside from the Philippines. Beijing did not accept the ruling.
The United States repeated a warning to China that an attack on Philippine armed forces in the South China Sea would trigger a 1951 US-Philippines mutual defense treaty.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the comment in a written statement marking the fifth anniversary of the Hague ruling.
Former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario suggested that China may have helped determine the outcome of a 2016 elections that swept Duterte to power.
Speaking at a forum yesterday, Del Rosario said a “most reliable international entity” had informed him that senior Chinese officials were “bragging that they had been able to influence the 2016 Philippine elections so that Duterte would be president.”
Del Rosario, a key player in the arbitration victory, did not elaborate on the source of the information he said he received in early 2019, how it was obtained, or how China might have influenced the election outcome.
Del Rosario referred to Duterte mentioning during a May 2018 speech that his Chinese counterpart had assured him Beijing would not allow him to be removed from office. Del Rosario said that remark was “disturbing.”
Duterte’s spokesperson Harry Roque, in his regular briefing, described Del Rosario’s remarks as “nonsense” and called him a “proven traitor” before telling him to “shut up.”
The Vice President said that under President Duterte, the alliances that could have been strengthened “were allowed to erode, while those who bully their way into our waters have been treated with deference, and at times, subservience.”
“The dream of a regional architecture founded on respect and mutual prosperity has become even more elusive,” said Robredo as she continued to press the administration to fight for the country’s territorial integrity by invoking the country’s arbitral victory which was achieved under the Aquino administration.
Robredo, a lawyer, said the ruling by The Hague is now a definitive part of international law which “cannot be erased from the history books, and cannot be denied despite the unending lies spewed forth by a formidable machinery of disinformation.”
She said the filing of the case by the previous Aquino administration before the tribunal and standing up for what is right against the economic and military might of a world power, “yielded the admiration and respect of the entire world.”
“Today’s commemoration is a reminder, a challenge, and a promise: That if only we can remember, if only we can unite, if only we can rediscover our spirit and once again stand for what is right – we will find, beneath the rubble of cowardice and neglect, our courage, our dignity, and our national pride,” she said.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the Philippines must continue pushing to complete the victory.
“Whatever we have done, or have failed to do, and what we must continue to pursue as part of our prerogatives as a law-abiding, democratic, and sovereign nation under this administration – unfortunately – has accrued little to our ‘accumulated advantage’ in the South China Sea and in the context of Philippine-China relations. On the contrary, we may have done very little in stemming the tide of an increasing Chinese footprint into the ASEAN region’s foreign policy, economy, and security,” said Lacson, chair of the Senate committee on national defense and security, peace, unification and reconciliation.
Blinken, in the statement, said, “The United States reaffirms its July 13, 2020 policy regarding maritime claims in the South China Sea,” referring to the rejection by former President Donald Trump’s administration of China’s claims to offshore resources in most of the South China Sea.
“We also reaffirm that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the South China Sea would invoke US mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty,” Blinken added.
That article of the treaty says in part that “each Party recognizes that an armed attack in the Pacific area on either of the Parties would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it would act to meet the common dangers in accordance with its constitutional processes.”
Blinken has made the point before, including during an April 8 conversation with the Philippine foreign minister in which the State Department said he “reaffirmed the applicability” of the treaty to the South China Sea.
House deputy speaker Rufus Rodriguez (Cagayan de Oro City) has filed House Resolution No. 1975 urging Congress to declare July 12 of every year as “National West Philippine Sea Victory Day.”
“This declaration will celebrate our government’s July 12, 2016 triumph before the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration, which upheld our country’s sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea, much of which our frenemy China is illegally claiming as part of its territory,” Rodriguez said.
Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon filed a resolution commemorating the fifth anniversary of the legal victory.
“The Philippines’ victory at the Hague should be a lasting reminder that the Filipino is never cowed or daunted, that false promises of economic largesse and military might will not serve to defeat what is right, and that our claims should be valiantly and relentlessly fought for, to ensure that future generations can benefit from the bounty of what is legally ours,” said Drilon in filing Senate Resolution 769.
“The monumental arbitral award, promulgated two weeks after the term of President Aquino, was hailed as a victory not just for the Philippines but also for other coastal states,” he added. — With Jocelyn Montemayor, Raymond Africa and Reuters
