Reacting to exclusive photos published this morning by the Philippine Daily Inquirer of China’s construction of military facilities in the South China Sea, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said, “what can we do?”
He added, “the posture of the president is to maintain close ties [with China] so they won’t have any reason to use those arms in those islands.”’
(Check out the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s exclusive photos here.)
Roque said the position of the government was not to wage a war with the Asian power.
“This ‘militarization,’ if you can call it militarization, did not happen during the Duterte administration alone. It’s been long militarized,” Roque said in a news conference.
The move was described by observers as part of China’s bid to cement its control over the contested waters.
Roque said that while Manila will not make a big deal out of China’s latest activities in its artificial islands, Beijing would be crossing a red line if it carries out new reclamation activities in the contested waters.
“Whether we like it [or not], they intended to use them as military bases, so what do you want us to say? All we could do is to extract a promise from China not to reclaim any new artificial islands,” he said.
“If the Aquino administration was not able to do anything about these artificial islands, what do you want us to do? We cannot declare war. Not only is it illegal, but it is also impossible for us to declare war at this point.”
Since assuming power, President Rodrigo Duterte has sought to downplay Manila’s South China Sea dispute with Beijing in pursuit of better economic ties with Asia’s largest economy.
China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei have overlapping claims in the South China Sea where US$5 trillion in trade goods pass annually. The area is also believed to contain oil and gas reserves.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China have agreed to start negotiations on a code of conduct on the South China Sea in March.
with a report from ABS-CBN News
Reader Interactions