Marcos must raise China violations with Xi Jinping – lawmaker

MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos should raise the recent “brazen” violations of China of international law and its disregard for the 2016 arbitral ruling in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) with Chinese President Xi Jinping when they meet in January in Beijing, Sen. Francis Tolentino said yesterday.

Tolentino issued the statement after the Senate on Wednesday adopted a resolution condemning what it called the continued acts of harassment and encroachment by China in the WPS, including the seizure of Chinese rocket debris from Philippine Navy personnel who recovered them floating well inside the country’s territorial waters.

“The President as the Chief Executive and the chief architect of our foreign policy has the call whether to bring this up or not (with Xi) but it’s (Senate condemnation) now really out there. The sense of the Senate has been expressed. It has been released in the media, I think the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China is aware of this, so this should be part of the discussions – engagements that would affect peace and order should be avoided in the WPS,” Tolentino told CNN Philippines.

He said the resolution expressing the “sense of the Senate” – seldom issued – “expresses a strong message that these incidents should be stopped.”

The unnumbered resolution was triggered by Tolentino’s privilege speech where he cited several incidents of harassment in the WPS that also included swarming by Chinese vessels of Philippine boats.

He said the incident where the Chinese Coast Guard vessel made threatening moves against the small Navy boat and cut the line that was towing the rocket debris threatened the country’s sovereignty.

“For this incident alone, the violations committed by the People’s Republic of China is very glaring, brazen… Aggression that is not just a threat to our territorial sea but also to our sovereignty.”

He said Beijing cannot claim innocent passage under United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as the Chinese vessel did not simply continuously pass through but was intent on retrieving the debris.

“There was a threat here. They cut the rope, they threateningly engaged the small rubber craft so this is now no longer considered innocent passage, so this activity has a direct bearing on our sovereignty,” he said.