Senators to discuss WPS Reso with Marcos

The Senate Resolution condemning China's incursions in the West Philippine Sea will be on the table when lawmakers meet President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. for dinner on Wednesday night. 

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said they will brief the President about Senate Resolution 718, condemning China's continued harassment of Filipino fishermen.

“It is a private dinner, but we will mention it to the President. Of course, we understand that he has to do a balancing act. He has to be firm and practice diplomacy at the same time,” Zubiri told reporters.

“That said, the senate has to be the bad cop here, so we can give the President more ammunition, that this is the unified voice of the Philippines, so he can say look, I’m getting pressure from the senators. We have to push back [on these Chinese aggression]. Otherwise, we just might wake up and find them in Palawan already,” he added.

The resolution also calls on China to stop its “illegal activities” in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and with the 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).

Secretary Enrique Manalo of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) already informed the senators that bringing the issue of Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea before the UN General Assembly is an option that the DFA is looking at.

Zubiri, meanwhile, clarified that the senators' meeting with the President has long been set and not in response to the Senate Resolution 718.

“He invited all senators... It is a casual dinner which have been set way before. [But] I don’t think they (minority senators) will make it,” he added.

Chinese aggression has been a fixture in  West Philippine Sea even if the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration already upheld the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the West Philippine Sea, outlawed Chinese aggression in common fishing ground areas and ultimately rejected China’s expansive nine-dash-line claim of the entire South China Sea. —VAL, GMA Integrated News