Marcos: Philippines continues to talk with China

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines will continue its diplomatic engagement with China so as not to heat up tensions in the West Philippine Sea, President Marcos said yesterday as he noted the success of the joint military drills with the US, Japan and Australia in Philippine waters over the weekend.

Marcos said his administration is exhausting all options to reach out to China’s leadership to prevent further escalation of tension in the West Philippine Sea.

“We are trying everything. We still continue to talk at a ministerial level, at a sub-ministerial level, at a people-to-people level,” the President told reporters after attending an event in Bacolod City.

“We’re doing everything we can to talk to the Chinese leadership, to Beijing, to tell them not to escalate tensions, to prevent these incidents of ramming vessels and water cannoning,” he said in Filipino.

Marcos also hopes the joint military drills held Sunday by the naval forces of the Philippines, US, Australia and Japan, dubbed Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity, would help lessen tensions in the region.

According to the President, the drills were aimed at strengthening interoperability. “So, I was told it went well,” Marcos said, referring to the MCA.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines, the US Indo-Pacific Command, Australian Defense Force and Japan Self-Defense Forces conducted the first Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity in the West Philippine Sea on Sunday.

The joint military drills came days before the scheduled trilateral summit of President Marcos, US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington DC this week.

The three leaders are expected to discuss recent incidents in the South China Sea, particularly the Chinese coast guard’s use of water cannons to block Filipino resupply missions to BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal.

During Sunday’s joint naval drills, two Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy vessels were spotted off Busuanga some six nautical miles away from the MCA area, although they did not appear to be holding “combat patrol” as announced by the Chinese military, according to Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr.

“We were able to achieve all the objectives that we have set forth, including the anti-submarine warfare exercise that we conducted,” Brawner told reporters.

“While they were doing the exercise we noticed the presence of two PLA navy ships in the distance but they did nothing to block or disrupt our exercises. So our maritime cooperative activity was successful,” Brawner said.

The Chinese kept their distance, unlike during their operations to block resupply missions to the Sierra Madre, he said.

Brawner stressed that the MCA was not a “show of force” and not directed against any country.

In the aftermath of last Sunday’s joint drills, Japan vowed to “seize every opportunity to strengthen its partnership with the Philippines, US and Australia in ensuring regional peace and stability.”

“The JMSDF (Japan Maritime Self Defense Force) will also continue to operate and exercise freedom of navigation in realizing a ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’,” Japan’s Ministry of Defense said yesterday in a statement.

Japanese destroyer Akebono took part in the drill. — Pia Lee Brago, Emmanuel Tupas, Evelyn Macairan