PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. said disputes in the South China Sea involving the China, the Philippines and three other countries has been keeping him up at night because one needs to be always aware of what is happening to be able to respond accordingly.
He reiterated he is committed to resolving dispute issues according to the rule of law.
The President, during a dialogue with World Economic Forum (WEF) president Bí¸rge Brende in Davos in Wednesday in Switzerland, said the dispute in the South China Sea has been keeping him up “at night,” “in the day,” and “most of the time.”
“It’s very dynamic, it is constantly in flux. So, you have to pay attention to it to make sure that you are at least aware of the present situation so that you’re able to respond,” he said.
Marcos also said the Philippines has been a “bystander” whenever there is tension in the area, arising from the presence of Chinese Coast Guards or United States warships in the region.
“If something goes wrong here, we are going to suffer,” he said.
The President said the maritime dispute is one of the issues he and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed during his state visit to China earlier this month.
Marcos also said that as far as the Philippines is concerned, “we have no conflicting claims with China. What we have is China making claims on our territory.”
He said that is how the Philippine approaches the issue, based on the UNCLOS and the UN’s recognition of the Philippines’ baselines.
Aside from the Philippines and China, Brunei, Vietnam and Malaysia have claims to the South China Sea.
The President acknowledged that there are some people, even in the Philippines, who want his government to do more, but “what do you want to do? Go to war?”
“We don’t, China doesn’t, the United States doesn’t. But just having the tensions increase already has an effect on trade, and all the exchanges we have within ASEAN, within the region, with China, with the US,” he added.
Marcos said he recognized that the problem is not simple and neither does it have a simple solution.
He also said he believes a military solution is not always the answer to issues, adding that it may end up badly in some cases, which could affect more people including other nations.
He cited as an example the war between Ukraine and Russia.
Marcos said the Philippines is also not keen on building up its armory, after Brende asked if it will follow Japan’s decision to raise its defense budget to 2 percent of its gross domestic product within five years from the current 1 percent.
“There is no point in the Philippines building up its armory. First, we are not in an economic situation that we are able to build up to the levels that the Americans had, to the levels that the Chinese have and more importantly perhaps is our abiding belief that the solutions are not going to be military,” he said.
The President, meanwhile, said that as far as the United States and the Philippines ties are concerned, it has been progressing.
“We are able to continue not only in terms of trade, and in terms of diplomatic relationship but beyond that we have security arrangements with the United States and that has come to the forefront whereas perhaps we were bit on the back burner for a little while, that has again come to the forefront because of the increased tensions in our part of the world,” Marcos said.
Asked if he wants to keep the Philippines’ security deals with the US, he said the only way for it to remain strong and relevant is to “evolve that relationships.”
“The Philippines has changed. The United States has changed. The world has changed. And now, we are living within the context of all of these other forces that are coming out, especially around the region, around South China Sea, so again, to be able to respond properly we have to evolve these relationships,” he said.
The Philippines is the US’ only treaty partner in the Asia Pacific region.
