CAGAYAN de Oro City Representative Rufus Rodriguez on Wednesday urged President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. (PBBM) to forge defense and security cooperation not only with Japan but with Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Korea as well.

“We should negotiate and enter into Visiting Forces Agreements (VFAs), like the one we have with the United States, in the face of heightened threats from China, the latest of which is the use of a military-grade laser on our Coast Guard vessel, which temporarily blinded its personnel,” he said.

He said the continued employment by China of “harassment tactics” on Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and Navy personnel and Filipino fishermen “is unacceptable and detestable and beyond the realm of civilized conduct.”

“How long our patriotic people, with their sense of national pride, could bear such harassment and bullying, I don’t know, but at some point, it has to stop. Enough is enough,” he said.

President Marcos Jr. announced his intention to forge a VFA with Japan during his five-day visit to Tokyo last week.

He said an agreement similar to the VFA with the US “is certainly under study.”

Japan has expressed readiness to participate in joint military exercises and humanitarian missions in the Philippines.

The Coast Guard vessel on which a military-grade laser was used was assisting a Navy ship resupplying a platoon of soldiers stationed at Ayungin Shoal, which is part of Philippine territory under international law.

Beijing has claimed that the Coast Guard ship intruded into Chinese waters and urged Manila to respect its territorial sovereignty.

Rodriguez dismissed Beijing’s assertion as “nonsense.”

“How can we intrude into our own territory? How about China heeding our incessant appeals for them to respect our territorial rights and interests and stop harassing and bullying our Coast Guard and Navy personnel and our fishermen?” he asked.

He also lauded the United States (US) for denouncing the military-grade-laser incident and for reaffirming its obligations under the 1951 RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty.

In a statement on Tuesday, US Department of State spokesman Ned Price said China’s “conduct was provocative and unsafe, resulting in the temporary blindness of the crew members of the BRP Malapascua and interfering with the Philippines’ lawful operations in and around Second Thomas Shoal.”

“More broadly, the PRC’s dangerous operational behavior directly threatens regional peace and stability, infringes upon freedom of navigation in the South China Sea (SCS) as guaranteed under international law, and undermines the rules-based international order,” he said.

Citing the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruling, Price said China has “no lawful maritime claims” over Ayungin Shoal.

He said the US stands with its ally, the Philippines, “in upholding the rules-based international maritime order.”

Price reaffirmed, “an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft, including those of the Coast Guard in the South China Sea, would invoke US mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty.”

He called on China to abide by the PCA ruling and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).