PH wants to talk with China on West Philippine Sea —DFA's Manalo

The Philippines will work hard to bring China back to the table for talks amid ongoing tensions in the West Philippine Sea, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Enrique Manalo told a Senate inquiry on Tuesday.

Following the National Maritime Council's meeting last Friday, Manalo said the DFA maintains that the "primacy of dialogue and diplomacy should prevail even in the face of these serious incidents," even though he admitted that "it's also a challenge."

"We will pursue the peaceful resolution of disputes in accordance with international laws, specifically the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 2016 Arbitral Award. And we have been working hard to bring back China to the table to talk with us to resolve differences on these issues," Manalo said.

BCM

According to Manalo, there is an existing mechanism called the Bilateral Consultation Mechanism (BCM) on South China Sea (SCS).

A working group was conducted last week in preparation for a BCM meeting with their Chinese counterparts in July, he said.

"We had a working group meeting last week in preparation for what we hope will be a meeting of the BCM, the Bilateral Consultation Mechanism. We hope to be held in early July with our Chinese counterparts, specifically to discuss the recent incidents," Manalo said.

"Also to see whether we can arrive at some understandings which could help, understandings, I mean some kinds of confidence-building measures which could hopefully create a basis then for more serious discussions to see how we can address these other issues," he added.

While the DFA opts to address these recent incidents through diplomacy, Manalo made an assurance that they will uphold the protection of national sovereignty in these talks with China.

"We will continue to pursue these efforts and also, let me just assure the committee and the Filipino people that while we are seeking the approach for a peaceful resolution through international law and diplomacy, of course, we are not blind to the incidents which are happening and we will ensure that whatever confidence building measures we achieve, they will be not at the expense of the promotion of our sovereignty, sovereign rights as well as our rights and jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea," he stressed.

Apart from denouncing the recent incident in the WPS, Manalo also stressed in the same Senate inquiry that China's actions are not in accordance with the understanding between Philippine President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and Chinese President Xi Jinping on managing the two countries' differences on the disputed waters.

"While we have a policy, still, as agreed by President Marcos and President Xi Jinping, that we agreed our government should seek to manage our maritime differences and not let incidents define our bilateral relations. It's clear that many of these recent incidents by China are inconsistent with this declared intention," Manalo said.

With this, Manalo said the DFA "sternly communicated" with their counterparts that "it was really incomprehensible how the delivery of basic necessities to our troops on the [BRP] Sierra Madre could be considered a provocation that would justify an increased level of Chinese actions and so, therefore, we believe their actions only intensified and escalated tensions and certainly, something we should be concerned about."

The Philippines earlier said the latest incident in Ayungin Shoal between Filipino troops and China Coast Guard was neither a misunderstanding nor an accident.

"It is a deliberate act of the Chinese officialdom to prevent us from completing our mission," Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said at a Palace briefing on Monday. 

Seven Filipino troops were hurt, including one who lost his thumb, when Chinese Coast Guard personnel harassed a Philippine resupply mission to Ayungin Shoal in the West Philippine Sea on June 17.

The Ayungin Shoal, which is also called Second Thomas Shoal, is located 105 nautical miles west of Palawan and is within the Philippines' 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and is part of its continental shelf.

On Tuesday, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said that China Coast Guard 5901, the world's largest coast guard ship known as "The Monster," was spotted in the area. 

“We have noted reports of a large China Coast Guard (CCG) vessel passing near the BRP Sierra Madre at Ayungin Shoal,” the AFP said in a statement.

The AFP emphasized that the presence of the CCG vessel in the area is “illegal, coercive, and contrary to the spirit of maintaining peace and stability in the region.”

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. over the weekend said the Philippines will not use force or intimidation or deliberately inflict injury or harm to anyone amid tensions in the West Philippine Sea.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. The Philippines refers to the part it is claiming as the West Philippine Sea. —with Reuters/KBK/ VAL, GMA Integrated News