Chinese belittles expert’s view

MANILA, Philippines—The Chinese Embassy in Makati City has belittled the views aired by a Filipino expert on international law about last week’s “Reed Bank incident” involving two Chinese patrol boats and a Philippine oil exploration vessel.

Ethan Sun Yi, deputy chief of the embassy’s political section, on Wednesday said he was “in a good position to comment on an individual opinion” on the issue.

Sun, also an embassy spokesperson, was referring to remarks made by Merlin Magallona, former Foreign Affairs undersecretary and ex-dean of the University of the Philippines’ College of Law.

“Since he is now with the academe, I could only view his opinion as coming from an individual instead of representing the (Philippine) government,” said Sun.

Magallona had said the Philippines was the “aggrieved party” in the Reed Bank incident as he also asserted President Aquino should not have sent a government maritime expert to Beijing to discuss the issue with Chinese officials.

Magallona emphasized China owed the Philippines an explanation, not the other way around.

“The Philippines is the aggrieved party. It should not have sent someone (to China) to explain. It should be the Chinese that should do the explanation. So why are we sending someone to explain to Beijing?” he said.

According to Magallona, “there’s something wrong (in the procedure).”