The Senate decision condemning China’s incursions within the West Philippine Sea will probably be on the desk when lawmakers meet President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. for dinner on Wednesday night time.
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri stated they are going to transient the President about Senate Resolution 718, condemning China’s continued harassment of Filipino fishermen.
“It is a private dinner, but we will mention it to the President. Of course, we understand that he has to do a balancing act. He has to be firm and practice diplomacy at the same time,” Zubiri advised reporters.
“That said, the Senate has to be the bad cop here, so we can give the President more ammunition, that this is the unified voice of the Philippines, so he can say look, I’m getting pressure from the senators. We have to push back [on these Chinese aggression]. Otherwise, we just might wake up and find them in Palawan already,” he added.
The decision additionally calls on China to cease its “illegal activities” in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and with the 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).
Secretary Enrique Manalo of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) already knowledgeable the senators that bringing the problem of Chinese aggression within the West Philippine Sea earlier than the UN General Assembly is an possibility that the DFA is .
Zubiri, in the meantime, clarified that the senators’ assembly with the President has lengthy been set and never in response to the Senate Resolution 718.
“He invited all senators… It is a casual dinner which have been set way before. [But] I don’t think they (minority senators) will make it,” he added.
Chinese aggression has been a fixture in West Philippine Sea even when the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration already upheld the nation’s unique financial zone (EEZ) within the West Philippine Sea, outlawed Chinese aggression in frequent fishing floor areas and in the end rejected China’s expansive nine-dash-line declare of all the South China Sea. —VAL, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
