Philippine to pursue new tack vs China aggression – President Marcos

MANILA, Philippines — As current diplomatic efforts with China appear to be headed “in a poor direction,” the Philippines may have to consider a “paradigm shift” in dealing with its giant neighbor, which continues to aggressively assert its claim over Philippine territorial waters, President Marcos said over the weekend.

“We have to do something that we have not done before. We have to come up with a new concept, a new principle, a new idea so that we move, as I say, we move the needle the other way. It’s going up, let’s move the needle back, so that paradigm shift is something that we have to formulate,” Marcos told Japanese media.

He said there was “very little progress” in current initiatives, judging from China’s continued acts of aggression in the West Philippine Sea.

“Well, to this point, we have resorted to the traditional methods of diplomacy where, should there be an incident, we send note verbal. Our embassy would send a démarche to the Foreign Affairs (Ministry) office in Beijing, but we have been doing this for many years now, with very little progress,” Marcos said. The President was in Tokyo for the 50th ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit.

While his administration has yet to craft a new set of diplomatic policies in dealing with Beijing, Marcos said the Philippines would be engaging allied states to devise a joint resolution defining their responsibilities in the West Philippine Sea.

“We do not want to go the point where there are incidents that might cause an actual violent conflict. Maybe from a mistake or a misunderstanding and these things happen all the time,” the President said.

“And so, we have, in my review, it’s time that the countries that feel that they have an involvement in this situation, we have to come up with a paradigm shift,” he added.

Marcos’ pronouncements came a week after two separate incidents of China Coast Guard vessels ramming and blasting with water cannons Philippine boats and ships on their way to deliver supplies to BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal and to local fishing communities in Panatag Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc.

Beijing’s foreign ministry yesterday blamed the Philippines for the incidents but vowed to work with Manila through dialogue, saying the relations between the two countries are not all about disputes.

Filing of diplomatic protests and even summoning of Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian had been routinely resorted to by Manila in response to the incidents, but these were largely ignored by Beijing.

Marcos said changing strategies with the help of partners in the Indo-Pacific region and “the rest of the world” might work to de-escalate tensions in the West Philippine Sea.

“We have to bring all of those ideas together and to change the direction that these incidents have taken us. We have to stop going that way. We’ve gone down the wrong road,” Marcos said.

“We have to disengage and find ourselves a more peaceful road to go down,” he said, stressing that dealing with Chinese aggression has become even more urgent, considering that it has already affected the livelihood of local fishermen.

“We have, as I have said, the consensus that we must continue to promote peace, but we have to decide amongst ourselves what part each of us plays and what we can play, what we are willing to play. So, and put that – put all of those elements together so that we have a good plan that will take us, as I’ve said, down not the road to conflict, but down the road to peace,” he added.

China claims “historic rights” over almost the entire South China Sea, a claim junked in 2016 by a UN-backed arbitral court based in The Hague. Beijing has refused to acknowledge the landmark ruling, claiming that the decision was “illegal” and a “mere piece of paper.”