President doesn’t appear to treat PH territory issues with importance — ACT solon

Rep. France Castro FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Following the Chinese Coast Guard’s (CCG) water cannon attack in the West Philippine Sea, Makabayan lawmaker and ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro said that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. does not seem to treat the issue of territory and sovereignty as important.

“Pres. Marcos did not even mention the issue during his last State of the Nation Address and even in his budget message, is the issue  of our territory and sovereignty not important to [him]?” Castro said in a statement issued on Sunday.

The lawmaker questioned the chief executive’s silence on the issue after CCG blocked and used water cannon on PCG vessels en route for a resupply mission to the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea on August 5.

READ: PCG condemns China Coast Guard’s water cannon attack in WPS

“Patuloy ang ganitong harassment at pag-atake sa mga Filipino lalo na ang ating mga mangingisda, tapos may gana pa ang China na mag-alok daw ng joint military exercises pero ganito naman ang kanilang ginagawa. Ano bang tingin nila sa atin uto-uto at susunod na lang sa gusto nila tulad ni Duterte?” Castro said.

(This kind of harassment and attacks on Filipinos, especially our fishermen, continues, and China even has the appetite to offer joint military exercises, but this is what they are doing. What do they think of us as idiots and next time they want to be like [former President Rodrigo] Duterte?)

She noted that Bayan Muna chairman Neri Colmenares proposed initiatives for the peaceful resolution of the South China Sea dispute at an international conference last June.

Among them was the Multi-pronged Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) or International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea cases; Joint Maritime or Air Patrols; UN Resolution Calling for the Demilitarization of the South China Sea; and the UN Resolution expressing the sense of the General Assembly that China should abide by the PCA Ruling.

“Dapat na talagang ilatag ng Pilipinas sa United Nations General Assembly ang tahasang paglabag ng China sa desisyon sa UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) at arbitral award, para mapressure na ang Tsina na tigilan ang kanyang ginagawa” Castro said.

(The country should present to the United Nations General Assembly China’s flagrant violation of the UNCLOS decision and arbitral award so that China will stop what it has been doing.)

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JPV