Marcos on Marcoleta's no-WPS remark: He's a candidate, has to grab headlines

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Thursday had a good laugh over Sagip party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta's recent remark that there was no such thing as the West Philippine Sea.

Marcoleta in a joint congressional inquiry on fake news said that there was a need to educate Filipinos on the complex issues surrounding the South China Sea.

In his remarks, he said that the West Philippine Sea was a creation of the Philippines and that there was no such body of water referred to in maps.

Marcoleta then drew criticism from staunch advocates of the Philippines' claims under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea that the Permanent Court of Arbitration upheld in 2016.

''Okay. All I can say is he’s expressing his opinion," Marcos said when asked to comment on what the lawmaker said.

Marcoleta was a member of Marcos' senatorial slate when he ran for President in 2022. He is again running for a seat in the Senate in Eleksyon 2025.

"When I see him, lolokohin ko siya – he is a candidate eh, so he has to grab headlines ‘di ba? So, tama ‘yung ginawa niya for a candidate,'' Marcos said.

''Ngayon, we’re talking about him na. Magaling talaga siya sa ganyan,'' he added laughing.

(I will rib him when I see him. He's a candidate so he has to grab headlines. What he did is just right for a candidate. We're now talking about him. He's good at these things.)

Marcoleta during the House committee hearing said, "Sinong agency ng government ang nag empower sa ating kababayan para malaman ang complications ng  West Philippine Sea? Isipin natin sir ah, there is nothing as West Philippine Sea. Wala po yun." 

"That is the creation by us. Sa totoo lang po kahit basahin mo yung mapa or what, there is no West Philippine Sea. Ang West Philippine Sea, yan po yung area na kine-claim natin. Ito po yung economic exclusive zone," Marcoleta said.

"The complications of the West Philippine Sea has not been explained to our people kaya po nagiging vulnerable tayong lahat. Ang sinasabi nila in-occupy daw ng China ang ating territory," he added.

"Sir sa totoo lang po, if the CICC and other agencies would cooperate with one another to empower our people, to educate them all, wala pong made-deceive kahit ano pa gawin ng China. We are claimants dito sa panig ng South China Sea," Marcoleta said.

Then-President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III in 2012 signed Administrative Order No. 29 naming the maritime areas on the western side of the Philippine archipelago as the West Philippine Sea."

"These areas include the Luzon Sea as well as the waters around, within, and adjacent to the Kalayaan Island Group and Bajo De Masinloc, also known as Scarborough Shoal," the AO said.

The AO cited in its clauses then-President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.'s Presidential Decree No. 15, which set the country's exclusive economic zone in 1978; Republic Act No. 9522 which defined the baselines of the Philippine archipelago in 2009; and the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea in 1982.

The arbitral court in The Hague in 2016 upheld the Philippines' EEZ under the UNCLOS and invalidated China's massive historical claims.

China has not recognized the decision. –with Celine Serquina/NB, GMA Integrated News