De Lima: Philippines should be more aggressive vs China

MANILA, Philippines — The Marcos administration should level up its counter moves against China’s bullying, which continues to endanger the lives of Filipinos particularly in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), ML party-list Rep. Leila de Lima said yesterday.

“China is going too far with its illegal activities that affect the lives and livelihoods of Filipinos. We cannot rely solely on diplomatic protests alone,” she said.

“Let me reiterate our call: the government should be more aggressive in protecting our environment, sovereign rights, and territorial integrity – paramount and legitimate interests of our people. What’s ours is ours alone, nobody has the right to claim or destroy it,” she added.

The House deputy minority leader noted that China carry “no qualms about their persistent hostile acts – the damage it inflicts on our vessels, the harm to our fishermen, soldiers, and government personnel, the livelihood they are depriving us of, and the many lives being put at risk.”

“We must show stronger opposition and make a stronger stand. We must assert our rights for the people, with the people. We don’t want China’s continued harassments, bullying, and baseless territorial claims to persist in future administrations and generations,” De Lima stressed.

Aside from vessel attacks in the WPS, the lawmaker was also referring to local dredging activities linked to China, where black sand mining operations go unabated in certain areas, to the detriment of local government units.

“This is one of the things we need to understand and focus on because aside from soil erosion and the decline in our fishermen’s catch, it also causes widespread flooding,” she said, believing that China “is benefiting from black sand mining under the guise of dredging in our country.”

Black sand or magnetite is one of the main iron ores used to make steel, making it invaluable for purposes of construction.

De Lima previously filed House Bill 1843, also known as the proposed “Anti-Black Sand Mining Act” in the 20th Congress.