The Filipino people should throw their support behind Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana’s stand in getting Chinese ships to leave the Julian Felipe Reef area, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Monday.
Lacson noted the incursion of Chinese ships in the Julian Felipe Reef is just one of several instances dating back to at least the 1990s.
“Filipinos should stand foursquare behind DND Secretary Delfin Lorenzana for making known his strong position in defending our country’s sovereign rights over the Whitsun Reef (Julian Felipe Reef) – and before that, the Mischief Reef, occupied by the Chinese during the period 1994-1995 and the Scarborough Shoal, which China cordoned off in 2012,” he said in a statement.
“All these have legal basis under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the existing arbitral ruling in our favor,” he added.
Yet, he lamented the sad reality that while the ruling is permanent, it is unenforceable.
“The situation is made worse when our country’s leaders and foreign policy decision makers resort to acquiesce bordering on implied derogation of our sovereignty,” he said.
On the other hand, he said “health crisis opportunism” by China during the pandemic does not speak well of the assumed trust and goodwill between the two Asian allies.
He added the Philippines continues to lose tens of billions of pesos a year in “stolen” aquatic resources, as well as the wanton destruction of corals within our Exclusive Economic Zone that threatens our food security.
“The fact that we are a militarily weak country that cannot match China’s military power should compel us to resort to establishing stronger alliances not only with other Asia-Pacific neighbors like Australia and Japan and the other ASEAN countries, but our long-standing western allies like the US and Europe,” he said.
“Only through a clear message that the presence of ‘balance of power’ in the West Philippine Sea can help us in this regard,” he added.
Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.
No comments:
Post a Comment