Zubiri calls for unity amid Chinese ‘bullying’
SENATE President Juan Miguel “Migz” F. Zubiri called for unity among Filipinos amid Chinese incursion in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
During Tuesday’s plenary session, August 15, 2023, Zubiri said the recent statement of Beijing, through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that Manila had yet to fulfill its promise to tow away the BRP Sierra Madre from the Ayungin Shoal is nothing but a “psychological warfare at its best.”
“Now that we are rallying behind the Philippine Navy and the Philippine Coast Guard, they tried to make up a statement that will makes us fight internally. It’s psy-war. We should not succumb to psychological warfare. We should stand united,” Zubiri said in mixed English and Filipino.
It can be recalled that senators earlier expressed unanimous decision to adopt Resolution no. 718 that strongly condemned the continued harassment of Filipino fishermen and the incursions in the WPS by Chinese Coast guard and militia vessels.
The resolution also listed options that the Philippine government may undertake to assert and secure the country’s sovereign rights over its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.
Zubiri earlier explained that the final resolution expanded the options for the government as the senators reached a consensus after a dialogue with Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner jr., and Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo.
Zubiri also expressed his strong support for President Marcos jr., who made a strong statement to rescind whatever controversial agreement that the Philippine should remove from its own territory its own ship, the BRP Sierra Madre from Ayungin Shoal.
