Marcos cool to raising sea row to UN assembly

KUALA LUMPUR – President Marcos appears not inclined to raise China’s continued aggression in the West Philippine Sea before the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

At a press conference here yesterday, Marcos was asked to comment on a Senate resolution, urging the administration to seek UNGA support for the country’s position in the South China Sea issue.

“Generally speaking, foreign policy is not set by the legislature. Generally speaking, foreign policy is left up to the executive,” Marcos said.

“The United Nations entertains governments, not parts of government... They deal with governments,” he added.

Marcos made the remarks after Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri agreed to Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano’s proposal for a caucus on July 31 to discuss the resolution authored by Sen. Risa Hontiveros urging the government to call out Beijing’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea before the UNGA.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo and presidential adviser on West Philippine Sea Andres Centino were expected to be invited to the closed-door meeting.

“I mean of course the senator (Hontiveros) is free to file whatever resolution she wants but I do not know how that would translate to any action that will reach the United Nations General Assembly,” Marcos said.

Earlier, Cayetano – who served as foreign affairs chief during the Duterte administration – blocked the Senate’s adoption of the resolution authored by Hontiveros.

Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro earlier raised the likely scenario of the resolution being turned down due to China’s veto power as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Marcos has also expressed hope former president Rodrigo Duterte may have already raised the Chinese coast guard’s harassment of Filipino vessels during his unannounced meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing this month.

Duterte cultivated warm ties with Beijing. Marcos, on the other hand, appeared to be pivoting back to the US.

China continues to ignore the July 12, 2016 ruling of The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration, which affirmed the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea and nullified Beijing’s claims over almost the entire South China Sea.

Not surprised

Hontiveros said she was not surprised that Cayetano blocked the Senate’s early adoption of her resolution.

In an interview with ANC’s “Headstart,” the opposition senator said her resolution was just a “simple” call for the Senate as an independent body to express its sentiment amid continued harassment of Filipino fisherfolk and coast guard vessels by China’s bigger ships while in Philippine waters.

“The resolution is so simple. It is expressing the sense of the Senate to urge the Philippine government through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to sponsor a resolution in the UNGA calling on China to respect and to comply with that Hague ruling, and to cease and desist from her harassment of Philippine vessels in the West Philippine Sea,” Hontiveros said.

“I wasn’t completely surprised that Senator Cayetano stood up against it. This was not the first time he did not support pressing the case against China, given his history of easing the Philippine foot on the gas pedal vis-a-vis China,” she added.

Echoing Cayetano’s position was presidential sister Sen. Imee Marcos who urged her brother to choose the de-escalation tack.

“While we are all blowing our top over the harassment of Filipino fisherfolk and coast guard, we should let cooler heads prevail and find solutions not based on emotions,” Marcos said in Filipino at the Kapihan sa Senado forum yesterday.

“For me, what is more important is to de-escalate tension at all costs,” she added.

Zubiri expressed confidence the Senate could still adopt the resolution after a caucus with Manalo and Centino on Monday, July 31.

“We are still confident that the resolution will pass. As to whether we will retain the original wording, that remains to be seen. We will meet with the (DFA), the Task Force on the West Philippine Sea, and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency to hear their concerns,” Zubiri said.

“While the senators differ on how to go about this, we are united in the desire to condemn the harassment and bullying of our fisherfolk and Coast Guard … We are confident that we can come up with a wording of the resolution that will meet our common desire while addressing the concerns of all the members of the Senate,” he added.

Joint drills with China?

Meanwhile, Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Romeo Brawner said China has offered to hold joint military exercises with the Philippines.

Brawner said he would study the offer, which was presented to him by China’s ambassador, CNN Philippines and state-run PTV reported.

“They said they submitted some white papers, we have to study,” Brawner said in a video posted by CNN Philippines on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

There was no immediate comment from Brawner, but military spokesman Medel Aguilar said he did see the video of Brawner’s interview and reiterated the conversation he had with the Chinese diplomat was “informal.”

“I am not aware if we are already furnished with the white papers,” Aguilar told Reuters. Brawner spoke to reporters on the sidelines of an event hosted by China’s ambassador to mark the anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army, Aguilar said.

China’s embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“We try to establish relations with armies, with armed forces around the world. This is one way for us to prevent war,” Brawner said.

Beijing’s offer to carry out joint military drills with the Philippines comes as time of heightened tensions between the countries over what Manila describes as China’s “aggressive” activities in the South China Sea.

China has longstanding territorial disputes in the South China Sea with several countries in the region, including the Philippines.

There were no other details given on the proposed joint military drills, but Brawner said they would not be conducted in the South China Sea.

A former army chief, Brawner this month took over as armed forces head, succeeding Andres Centino, now Marcos’ adviser on the South China Sea. – Marc Jayson Cayabyab