PBBM deserves praise for ‘standing up’ vs latest WPS row
PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. (PBBM) deserves praise for standing up against Chinese “bullying” in its own backyard, House Deputy Speaker Ralph Recto said Thursday.
Summoning the Chinese ambassador to Malacañang “is a gutsy response to gunboat diplomacy,” Recto said.
He was referring to Marcos’ move to demand the presence of Beiing’s envoy so he can personally express his “displeasure” over the latest aggressive acts of Chinese vessels at Ayungin Shoal.
“To the world, the President’s move shone a spotlight on the correctness of our position, more powerful than the laser show that the Chinese boats put up to manifest their baseless claim,” he said.
The fact that many countries followed suit in condemning China showed that the “President used a nonconfrontational tool that enlightens the civilized world better than lasers,” he said.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace S. Barbers said, “now that China has finally owned up to its cowardly act of bullying us in our territorial seas, we condemn in the strongest terms these acts of aggression.”
“We call on our fellow Filipinos to stand united and rally behind our President as he expresses our frustrations and protests diplomatically. We cannot (keep quiet anymore) and endure in silence.
We have suffered long enough. Our fishermen have been directly victimized. As if it was not enough, they now provoked our military and committed an act of military aggression,” Barbers added.
“We call on our allies to help us in the implementation of the arbitral ruling that gave us territorial jurisdiction over the seas now being occupied illegally and without an iota of basis neither in history nor in International Law, by China,” Barbers said.
Recto added that Marcos Jr.’s summoning the Chinese ambassador “was worth more than the reams of diplomatic protests that DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) has been regularly lodging against China.”
The latest, which denounces the recent “dangerous maneuvers” of the CCG (China Coast Guard) in Ayungin Shoal, was the 75th “note verbale” against China filed under the Marcos administration.
Last year, a total of 195 notes verbales were filed by DFA with the Chinese embassy.
Jealous of the government’s “reembrace of America,” Recto said the Philippines should brace for a “protracted war of nerves” with China.
“They will be throwing tantrums, like a jilted lover who has lost face. They probably felt that they’ve lost a concubine,” Recto said.
“Marami pang harassment na darating. Dapat paghandaan ito,” he said.
But Recto said “laser harassment” is not a basis for “running to Uncle Sam” to invoke the mutual defense treaty between the Philippines and the US (United States).
“It is a disproportionate response that will escalate things unnecessarily,” he said.
“I put my faith in the President that he has more than enough in his toolkit to respond to Chinese aggression, without [the] need to send an SOS to the Americans,” he said.
