Makabayan bloc lawmakers on Friday urged President Rodrigo Duterte to denounce and deny the Philippine authorities’s supposed promise to China to drag BRP Sierra Madre out of Ayungin Shoal.
“Gusto natin manggaling kay President Duterte ang pag-denounce at pag-deny nito [We want President Duterte himself to denounce and deny this],” House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro mentioned in a press briefing.
“He has not said anything about these incursions of China and China’s wanton disregard of our exclusive economic zone,” she added.
Ayungin Shoal within the West Philippine Sea is inside the nation’s unique financial zone (EEZ).
The Makabayan bloc has filed House Resolution 1215 searching for a congressional inquiry into the supposed dedication made by the Philippines to China concerning BRP Sierra Madre.
Former Presidents Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo have already denied making such dedication to China. Meanwhile, it was the Duterte administration’s government secretary, Salvador Medialdea, who made the denial on Duterte’s behalf.
According to Castro, Duterte “is very friendly to China.”
“Why is he so quiet about this?” Castro mentioned, referring to China’s repeated aggression within the West Philippine Sea, similar to firing water cannons and pointing navy grade lasers at Philippine vessels.
Kabataan party-list Representative Raoul Manuel, for his half, mentioned the denials of all three residing former presidents solely make the House inquiry important.
“If everyone is denying it, all the more that we should investigate it. One of them is definitely lying,” Manuel mentioned.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo earlier mentioned that China has but to indicate proof of such settlement to take away BRP Sierra Madre from Ayungin Shoal, and that such dedication was not made in the course of the Marcos administration.
He additionally mentioned it’s unlikely that such promise was made in the course of the administration of the late President Benigno Aquino III because it was throughout his time that the Philippines sued China earlier than the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration as a result of extended 2012 standoff between Philippine and Chinese vessels in Panatag Shoal, which can also be situated inside the Philippine unique financial zone within the West Philippine Sea.
Marcos himself has mentioned that the Philippine authorities has not promised China to take away BRP Sierra Madre from Ayungin Shoal, and that he’s rescinding any dedication if ever there may be one.
BRP Sierra Madre vessel that has been grounded in Ayungin Shoal since 1999.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration, in a July 2016 ruling on the Philippines’ case, already upheld the nation’s unique financial zone within the West Philippine Sea, outlawed Chinese aggression in widespread fishing floor areas, and in the end rejected China’s expansive nine-dash-line declare of the complete South China Sea.
China doesn’t acknowledge the ruling. —KBK, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
