Palace on Duterte’s EEZ stand: His ‘prime duty’ is to protect our lives

Map showing disputed claims in the South China Sea. Includes locations for Reed Bank and Benham Rise, where Chinese survey ships were seen last year, according to the Philippine government. AFP

MANILA, Philippines—President Rodrigo Duterte, as Chief Executive of the country, was just doing his “prime duty” in protecting the lives of Filipinos when he allowed China to fish in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ), Malacañang said Tuesday.

In a statement, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo insisted that Duterte did not violate the Constitution when he entered into a verbal agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping, allowing Chinese to fish in the country’s EEZ, including the Recto Bank.

Panelo, who is also Duterte’s chief legal counsel, explained that the President only entered into the agreement to avoid any armed conflict with the Asian powerhouse that could result in putting Filipinos in danger.

“The government is the creation of the people to serve and protect them from danger and extinction. This is precisely the reason why the framers of the Constitution have immortalized the raison d’etre of a government, which is: its prime duty is to serve and protect the people,” Panelo said.

“This is found in Section 4 of Article 2 of the Constitution,” he added.

Senior Justice Antonio Carpio earlier questioned Duterte’s fishing agreement with China. He claimed that by allowing Chinese in the country’s’ EEZ, the President failed to fulfill his Constitutional duty to protect the country’s natural resources as dictated by Section 2 of Article 12.

READ: Carpio presses Duterte on EEZ defense

READ: Carpio: EEZ provision in Charter not senseless as Duterte sees it

The provision states that: “The State shall protect the nation’s marine wealth in its archipelagic waters, territorial sea, and exclusive economic zone, and reserve its use and enjoyment exclusively to Filipino citizens.”

However, Panelo countered this and said that the provision “must be read in relation to (the) primordial duty of the President to serve and to protect the Filipino people.”

“If you go over the Constitution, most of the provisions, if not all, relative to the protection of the State and its people emanate from that. That is the basic premise,” he said.

“A provision in the Constitution, and for that matter, any law, cannot be read in isolation but always in conjunction with the other provisions, to give life, and not to kill the very rationale of the Constitution,” Panelo stressed.

The Palace official further pointed out that the Constitution is designed to safeguard Filipinos’ “very existence and survival because, in the hierarchy of rights, the right to life takes precedence over the right to property.”

Panelo added that critics “do not realize – or they ignore the fact – that as far as China is concerned, it has sovereignty over the entire South China Sea, and any aggressive move by any country contrary to its claim of ownership is deemed an assault to its sovereignty and will be repelled by force.”

Duterte earlier described as a “provision for the thoughtless and the senseless” Section 2, Article XII of the Constitution.

READ: Duterte: EEZ provision in PH Constitution for the ‘senseless, thoughtless’