Marcos: PH to push back vs China if rights in WPS are ignored

MELBOURNE, Australia - The Philippines will push back against China if its sovereign rights are ignored, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said Monday.

''Our independent foreign policy compels us to cooperate with them on matters where our interests align, to respectfully disagree on areas where our views differ, and to push back when our sworn principles such as our sovereignty, our sovereign rights, and jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea are questioned or ignored,'' Marcos said before the Lowy Institute. 

He said the Philippines' interest in the region lies in ensuring that the universal and unified character of the 982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is consistently upheld.

Marcos lamented that despite the clarity provided by international law, ''provocative, unilateral, and illegal actions continue to infringe upon our sovereignty, our sovereign rights, our jurisdictions'' in the resource-rich region.

''This pattern of aggression obstructs our path towards ASEAN’s vision of the South China Sea as a sea of peace, stability, and prosperity,'' Marcos said.

''As a country committed to the cause of peace and the peaceful settlement of disputes, the Philippines continues to tread the path of dialogue and diplomacy despite these serious difficulties,'' he added.

Marcos said his administration would continue to engage China, ''bilaterally and through ASEAN-led mechanisms, to address our differences at sea.''

''We are determined to make our bilateral mechanisms with China work, and we will leverage our bilateral mechanisms with other claimant states towards the peaceful management of disputes,'' the Philippine president said.

He reiterated that the Philippines would never surrender even a square inch of its territory and its maritime jurisdiction.

WPS is part of the South China Sea which China claims nearly in its entirety despite a 2016 international arbitral ruling that denigrated its massive ownership to the resource-rich sea. Beijing has repeatedly said its ownership of SCS is "indisputable." 

A vital trading and shipping lane, the South China Sea — dotted with rocks, shoals and reefs where rich oil and mineral deposits were found -- are claimed in part or in whole by the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan. 

Recently, several near-collisions with Chinese ships and other dangerous maneuvers, including a laser-pointing incident, by its coast guard against Filipino vessels have frequently occurred during routine resupply missions and patrols to Philippine-claimed features in WPS, sparking concerns among several Asian and Western states, such as the US, European Union, Australia and Japan. 

Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel Romualdez recently told a forum attended by Filipino and foreign diplomats that the long-raging disputes in the South China Sea is Asia's "real flashpoint" for a major armed conflict, adding it is the "most difficult challenge" Manila has faced since World War II.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila, however, criticized Romualdez for his remark, saying he "wantonly hyped up the South China Sea issue and made speculations and malicious smears against China." 

The Philippine Embassy in Washington refuted China's statement. 

Constructive engagement

Marcos said the Philippines should deal with the United States and China ''constructively.''

He said the Philippines understands that the widening geopolitical polarities around the world and the sharpening strategic competition between the two countries ''have become a reality permeating the regional strategic environment.'' 

''But we caution against over-emphasizing this reality,'' Marcos said. 

''We acknowledge the undeniable importance of the People’s Republic of China and the United States of America to the security situation and the economic evolution of this region and of the world. We must deal with both of them constructively,'' he added. 

Marcos explained that the emphasis on the geopolitical polarities between Washington and Beijing tends to ''subsume the legitimate rights'' and interests of countries like the Philippines, Australia, and other ASEAN member states. 

''It also obscures our judgment. It distracts us from calling out aggressive, unilateral, illegal, and unlawful actions for what they are: attacks against the rule of international law and the principles of the Charter of the United Nations,'' said the President.

''Indeed, there are those who sometimes justify such provocations under the pretext of geopolitics and mischaracterize the remedies availed of by the aggrieved as mere tactics in this grand strategic game,'' he added. 

Marcos stressed that the future of the Pacific region would not be shaped by one or two actors, but by many. 

''They will each demand that their voices be heard, individually and collectively, as indeed they should be,'' Marcos said. 

''Thus, the Philippines begins any conversation regarding great power competition with a strong rejection of any, any subordination of our distinct national interests and denial of our sovereignty and strategic agency,'' he said.  —KBK/DVM/NB, GMA Integrated News