Envoy hopes China will see PH, US only want peaceful resolution of maritime issues

Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez expressed hope Friday that China would realize Manila and Washington only want peaceful resolution of issues, especially in the South China Sea.

In a television interview, Romualdez was asked for his view on the response of China on the 2+2 meeting between Filipino and American officials wherein the latter urged Beijing to stick to the rule of law when it comes to maritime issues.

For the envoy, the joint statement was not directed towards China but to all incursions that "happened in the past." Romualdez also said the two countries were not looking for conflict with other nations, following this statement.

"The statement really is not, in our view, directed against China. What it mentions is that all of the transgressions, whatever happened in the past. This alliance we have with the United States is precisely to deter any more of these types of incursions," Romualdez said in an ANC interview.

"We are hoping that our friends in China will see that as an opportunity for us to be more serious about really resolving these issues peacefully. They have a conflict with the United States, the United States is our ally, there are many other countries that are dealing with China and they are very close to the United States..." he added.

Romualdez also mentioned the harassment being experienced by Filipino fisherfolks in the country's territorial waters, adding that the hostile actions were often made by Chinese forces.

"Our fishermen, up to this day, every single day get harassed by ships that are obviously of Chinese registry in our territorial waters. They have been doing this for so many years, hundreds of years and yet we get reports almost everyday of that nature," he said.

"Clearly, our territorial waters are ours, we've had it all this time and now we have somebody claiming that it's theirs," he added.

The Philippines and the US have expressed strong objections "to the unlawful maritime claims, militarization of reclaimed features, and threatening and provocative activities in the South China Sea."

They said those activities often affect and interfere with the livelihoods of fisherfolk as well as undermine food security in the Philippines.

China, for its part, objected to the joint statement, stressing that it only made false accusations against Beijing. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin also maintained that "China has indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea Islands and the adjacent waters."

Meanwhile, Romualdez said the Philippines' defense ties with the US was only a measure to defend the country's sovereignty and to protect the citizens.

But, he admitted that the Philippines would also be involved once the tension between the US and China escalates amid the issue in Taiwan because the Philippines is "right in the center of the Asian region."

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory.

"These are two competing countries, we are hoping that they will be able to solve the issues surrounding Taiwan because no matter what happens, even if we say we don't wanna get involved, we will be involved because we're right here," Romualdez said.

"In fact, we just had a recent meeting with our ASEAN ambassadors and it was very clear when we had an intelligence briefing that whatever happens, the entire ASEAN region will be affected. So, we have to be together in trying to deter any kind of conflict that will make all of us suffer no matter what happens," he added.

Business

When it comes to the business and economy sector, Romualdez sees the Philippines' defense strategy with the US as significant to how American businesses look at Manila, especially in making investments.

"There's no doubt about it that our defense strategy with the United States played a major role in how US businesses are looking at the Philippines today," he said.

"Before all of this, US businesses have been looking at the Philippines with a little bit of doubt, where we're going as far as relationship with the United States and other countries concerned... so they were looking at our neighbors, specifically Vietnam and Thailand but now, they're going back to the Philippines and seeing it as a very high potential for investments," he explained.

According to Romualdez, businesses in the US are, however, somewhat vocal that the economic provisions under the Philippine Constitution must be changed in order to be at par with other nations.

"No, doubt about it... The main thing is every time... we used to have this, I used to attend briefings even before I became ambassador here, not only here in the United States but in other countries where I joined the business delegation of many of our presidents. And all the time, it is always that our economy was quite restricted and that is because of our 1987 Constitution, which really does not allow too many things, simple things like an advertising company... an advertising company, a foreigner can only own up to 30%... it does not really make sense..." he said.

"We have to update our Constitution, we have to update our economic policies to be able to come up at par with the other countries we're competing with. Remember, the competition is very strong out there right now. There's a big pie, but we have to try to share a bigger pie into that pie," Romualdez added.

There have been calls to amend the 1987 Constitution to update and revise some economic policies to attract more foreign investments.

In February, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., however, said that amending the 1987 Constitution is not a priority of his administration.—Anna Felicia Bajo/AOL, GMA Integrated News