MANILA, Philippines — Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Monday told Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque to “lay off” foreign affairs, saying the Palace official is “not competent” in the field.
“I am not listening to Harry Roque. Love the guy but he’s not competent in this field. We do not go back to The Hague. We might lose what we won. Harry, lay off,” Locsin said over Twitter.
Palace denies Beijing law killed hope for South China Sea code of conduct:https://t.co/EoBJ619laD via @ABSCBNNews I AM NOT LISTENING TO HARRY ROQUE. LOVE THE GUY BUT HE'S NOT COMPETENT IN THIS FIELD. WE DO NOT GO BACK TO The Hague. WE MIGHT LOSE WHAT WE WON. HARRY, LAY OFF.
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) February 1, 2021
“Harry, just lay off foreign affairs,” he said in another tweet.
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The foreign affairs chief’s tweet was an apparent response to Roque’s pronouncement that the Philippines could raise to a United Nations tribunal China’s new law that allows its coast guard to fire at foreign vessels in Chinese-claimed reefs.
“Ang China po hindi pupuwedeng dalhin sa International Court of Justice dahil wala po siyang consent na mag-litigate doon sa ICJ,” Roque said.
(We can’t bring it before the International Court of Justice because it has not consented to litigation.)
“Ang pupuwedeng gawin po ay diyan nga po sa International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea gaya ng ginawa natin, dahil by being a party to UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), she (China) also become a party to the compulsory dispute settlement mechanism,” he added.
(What we can do is raise it to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea as we did before because by being a party to UNCLOS, she also becomes a party to the compulsory dispute settlement mechanism.)
Roque said this during a Palace briefing earlier Monday, where he was asked to comment on the suggestion of retired Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio that the Philippines and other Southeast Asian should run to a United Nations tribunal to declare China’s coast guard law as void.
The Palace official, however, said the decision to do so will still be up to the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) as well as the ministry of foreign affairs of other Southeast Asian countries.
“Hayaan na po nating magdesisyon sa mga bagay na iyan ang DFA [Let the DFA decide on those things] but like in our domestic jurisprudence…we need to show that the enforcement of a law will in fact violate the rights of an individual and we need to show that there is an actual case or controversy as well,” Roque said.
Last week, Locsin filed a diplomatic protest over its new coast guard law, which the foreign affairs chief saw as a “verbal threat of war to any country that defies” it.
The Chinese Embassy in the Philippines, meanwhile, slammed the “false accusations” against the new China law.
It insisted that the law, which was a “normal domestic legislative activity” of Beijing, conforms with international conventions and is not specifically targeted at any certain country.
China claims nearly the entire South China Sea, including waters within the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines (the West Philippine Sea), Vietnam, and Taiwan.
In July 2016, the Philippines sealed a historic win against China before the United Nations-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands, which invalidated China’s nine-dash line claim, a ruling that Beijing refuses to recognize.