Philippines filed 405 diplomatic protests vs. China's aggression in WPS

The Philippines has filed at least 405 diplomatic protests over China's aggression in the country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the West Philippine Sea, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Monday.

The DFA made the announcement through its budget sponsor, Manila Representative Bienvenido Abante, during the plenary deliberations on the department's proposed P20.4 billion budget for 2023.

"Since 2020, we have filed 405 protests, including diplomatic notes on daily illegal presence of Chinese vessels in Pag-asa island and Julian Felipe Reef, as well as Chinese illegal activities in West Philippine Sea such as radio challenges, dangerous maneuvers, among others," he said.

"The DFA will continue to assert the Philippine sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea, and the best way to do it is to file diplomatic protest," he added.

Abante cited the diplomatic protests after Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman countered President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.'s statement that the Philippines has no territorial conflict with China.

Lagman, however, said that the hundreds of protests were not enough to stop China's defiance of the Hague ruling, the landmark July 2016 UN Permanent Court of Arbitration decision rejecting its expansive nine-dash line claim of the entire South China Sea.

The same ruling also declared the Spratly Islands, as well as the Panganiban (Mischief) Reef, Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal and Recto (Reed) Bank are all within the Philippines' EEZ.

"When China is annexing Philippine territory and building military facilities there, is it correct for the President to say that we do not have territorial conflict with China? After China keeps on bullying Filipino fisherfolk fishing our exclusive economic zone, is it correct for the President to say that we do not have territorial conflict with China?" Lagman said.

"We could file a million diplomatic protests but China will just throw it in a dustbin of arrogance and aggression," he added.

Abante, however, said that DFA's mandate is to file diplomatic protest.

"The DFA will not go to war because filing diplomatic protests is really the work of the DFA," Abante said.

"We have never said that we do not have territorial conflict with China. We maintain sovereignty on these islands, of which China is trying to occupy," Abante added.

Lagman said the Philippines should start pushing for the enforcement of the Hague ruling.

"For every day that we are not enforcing the arbitral ruling, we are surrendering not only inches but hectares of our rich maritime resource," he said.—LDF, GMA News