Solons urge Duterte to revoke remark assailing PCA ruling

The House Makabayan bloc has filed a resolution calling on President Rodrigo Duterte to withdraw his statements "undermining" the country's sovereign rights and territorial claims in the West Philippine Sea.

Members of the bloc has filed House Resolution 1790, which called on Duterte to "categorically retract his public statements that the historic July 12, 2016 decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration is a 'scrap of paper' for the 'wastebasket', and that China is in possession of the sea that Manila calls our own.

They said, "Duterte's  pronouncements clearly undermine the country’s sovereign rights and territorial claims."

Also, HR 1790 recalled Duterte's pronouncement in November 2016: "I will set aside the arbitral ruling. I will not impose anything on China" despite the PCA ruling that rejected China’s "nine-dash line" claim.

PCA's award invalidated China's massive claim in the disputed sea, and affirmed the Philippines' sovereign rights to exploit marine and other natural resources in its exclusive economic zone in the part of the South China Sea that Manila calls West Philippine Sea (WPS).

Further, the resolution argued that Duterte's statement that he had a verbal agreement with China’s President Xi Jinping allowing Chinese fishing vessels to fish in the EEZ, is a "clear disregard of our economic rights as enshrined under the Constitution, and as affirmed by the PCA Ruling."

The House minority solons cited past incidents of China's aggression in the WPS, including its dispersion of Philippine ships in the Sabina Shoal between April 27-29 and May 7-8; and Chinese Coast Guard vessels doing maritime patrols in Bajo de Masinloc in Zambales on April 24-25, 2021.

Moreover, the resolution recalled that the Philippines has already filed petitions before the United Nations, and that secretaries of Defense and Foreign Affairs have condemned incidents of Chinese incursions.

However, the resolution read, "President Duterte and his spokesperson continuously downplay the incidents, going as far as saying that the issue is only exaggerated by the President’s critics."

Bloc members who signed the resolution include:

• Bayan Muna Party-list Representatives Carlos Zarate, Ferdinand Gaite and Eufemia Cullamat;
• ACT Teachers Party-list Representative France Castro; 
• GABRIELA Women's Party Representative Arlene Brosas, and
• Kabataan Partylist Representative Sarah Jane Elago.

—LBG, GMA News