MANILA, Philippines – Malacanang scored Vice President Leni Robredo for failing to “comprehend the complexities of our current situation with China” and commenting that she had been disappointed by President Rodrigo Duterte’s statement that China would agree to joint oil exploration if the Philippines set aside a 2016 international ruling that nullified Beijing’s mythical nine-dash claim on virtually the entire South China Sea.
Salvador Panelo, presidential spokesperson, in a statement, said Robredo should have been “more circumspect” in discussing how the Duterte administration deals with China.
Robredo, said Panelo, should “rely more on her instinct as a lawyer and mother protective of those she is constitutionally tasked to shepherd.”
Panelo said Robredo should think about changing her advisers and tapping those knowledgeable about geopolitics and diplomacy.
Robredo had reacted to Duterte’s remarks about China demanding that the Philippines ignore the arbitral ruling in exchange for partnership for oil exploration and other economic activities in the South China Sea.
Robredo said exploring for oil and other resources “should not come at the expense of upholding our rights to the West Philippine Sea.”
Panelo said in his statement that Robredo “may have been carried away by nitpicking and habitual engagement in useless and unproductive semantics.”
“What is ‘profoundly disappointing and extremely irresponsible,’ to borrow her words, is her evolving penchant of finding fault in every word the President says, as well as issuing misplaced and flamboyant remarks against it,” Panelo said.
He reiterated the President’s stance that he is not surrendering the Philippines’ claims in the West Philippine Sea, and that “the arbitral ruling, as the President has repeatedly said, is final, binding and unappealable.”
Waxing poetic, Panelo added: “It will be there forever and ever, as in forever. It has the permanence of the Rock of Gibraltar whose extinction can come only when there is a massive geographical movement of the earth’s surface.”
He said Duterte “will not allow nor sit idly in silence respecting any action by the international community in derogation thereof” and that he is fiercely protective of the country’s sovereignty.
He added that the President only chose to focus on areas of cooperation with China such as the joint oil exploration deal while the arbitral ruling is still being discussed peacefully.
“It would certainly be the height of folly and naïveté if the Philippines were to ignore areas of investment that our country badly needs to fuel our rapidly expanding growth,” Panelo said.
He reiterated that the Philippines’ difference with China, “or with any other country for the matter, cannot be the sum total of our relationship with it or with any other.”/TSB