Ex-DFA chief urges return of joint patrols with US

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government should revisit the joint patrols of the country's exclusive economic zone with the United States and other partners in response to China's alleged threat of war, former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said.

The former top diplomat also suggested that the government heed the advice of Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio to file a protest with the United Nations.

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier recounted that Chinese President Xi Jinping threatened that Beijing would go to war if Manila extracts oil and gas in the Reed Bank or in any area within its EEZ. He claimed that he had raised the matter of the UN arbitral tribunal ruling that China's sweeping nine-dash-line claim over a large part of the South China Sea had no legal basis. The tribunal also ruled that China had violated other claimants' rights by blocking access to Scarborough Shoal, a traditional fishing ground that Manila also calls as Bajo de Masinloc and Panatag Shoal.

He said that China President Xi Jinping told him that China values its friendship with the Philippines, "but if you force the issue, we go to war."

Carpio said that China's threat is a gross violation of the UN Charter, UN Convetntion on the Law of the Sea and the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, to which China and the Philippines are parties.

The president has been known to make off-the-cuff statements that have had to be clarified by his subordinates. On Monday, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, a former senator and Duterte's running mate in 2016, said that going to war "was not the context" of the Chinese president's supposed statement.

"It is but natural when you talk about peace and when you talk about conflict... the word 'war' may come up, may or may not come up,... So I'm not confirming or denying," Cayetano said in a press conference Monday morning.

READ: ‘Philippines can bring China war threat before UN’

In a statement released Monday, Del Rosario said that it is in the country's national interest to file the protest with the UN General Assembly.

"We can expect that the responsible community of nations would be supportive of such a diplomatic action by the Philippine Government," Del Rosario said.

Meanwhile, the joint patrol of the country's EEZ with the US and other partners would be a strategic and tactical move in defending the Philippines' national interest and territorial integrity.

Del Rosario noted that the incumbent administration dropped the joint patrol initiative with the US as it is inconsistent with the new government's "full embrace of China."

"As an integral part of the Philippine response, it behooves the Philippine government to pursue a defensive posture by revisiting the joint patrol strategy of the West Philippine Sea which the US was prepared to undertake at the request of our previous government," the statement read.

Under the Aquino administration, Del Rosario led the Philippines in filing the arbitration case against China's nine-dash line claim over the South China Sea before a UN-backed arbitral tribunal.

In July 2016, the arbitral tribunal issued an award in favor of the Philippines, invalidating China's historic claims over the disputed waters. The Duterte administration, however, set aside the ruling and decided to hold a bilateral consultation mechanism with Beijing in settling the maritime dispute.

In September 2016, as part of the Philippines' new independent foreign policy, Duterte rejected joint patrols in disputed areas. He said Philippine ships will only patrol territorial waters, which extend up to 12 nautical miles from shore.

RELATED: Cayetano mum on China war threat