MANILA, Philippines — With 44 Chinese vessels still remaining in Julian Felipe (Whitsun) Reef, two lawmakers condemned the continued Chinese presence in Philippine waters, demanding that the regional superpower vacate the hotly-contested territory.
In separate statements issued Monday morning, senators Risa Hontiveros and Panfilo Lacson slammed what they said was the "continued deceit and aggression" on Beijing's part and the lack of action from Manila.
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To recall, the Department of National Defense earlier this weekend demanded Chinese vessels to leave the West Philippine Sea anew, saying they have “no other reason” to remain there. This comes after the department had already sent out ships to patrol the area.
"So hard-headed. The Chinese vessels in Julian Felipe reef should leave immediately. If they are fishing vessels as China claims, then they can't fish in our Exclusive Economic Zone without our consent. Is it really a misunderstanding or are they purposely deceiving us?" Hontiveros said in mixed Filipino and English.
"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," Lacson also said for his part.
In his strongly-worded statement Saturday, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said that Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian "has a lot of explaining to do."
“We, again, reiterate our demand for the Chinese to leave our sovereign territories and abide by international law,” Lorenzana said then.
To this day, Beijing continues to reject the arbitral ruling that the Philippines won in The Hague in 2016 based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which held that China's sweeping nine-dash line claim has no legal basis.
President Rodrigo Duterte has publicly asserted that he cannot do anything on the maritime dispute as doing so, he falsely claimed, would directly mean going to war with them.
Lacson called for the establishment of strong diplomatic relations with other countries.
"Even amid this pandemic, such 'health crisis opportunism' being applied by China does not speak well of the assumed trust and goodwill between the two Asian allies," he said.
"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. Only through a clear message that the presence of 'balance of power' in the West Philippine Sea can help us in this regard."
Hontiveros in her statement called for urgency on the part of the national government in acting on the increasingly volatile tensions in the territory.
"The Philippine government should also already study effective ways of making China pay for her incursion. Beijing has damaged parts of our seas beyond repair and it's only right that it pays for this irreversible destruction... Every delay on our end is an opportunity for China to seize what is justly and rightfully ours," Hontiveros said.
"The Chinese Communist Party wants to be Asia's leader but, instead, it has become Asia's biggest bully. Instead of uniting the region, it has united the region against it. How long can such a regime hold any sort of mandate to lead the region?" she added. "A strategy based on lies and deception does not always make one sublime; sometimes, it also exposes one as lying."
— Franco Luna