IF China only understood deeply the meaning of the word “respect”, it would not ignore the rights of its Asian neighbors to their territorial waters, build artificial islands, install facilities as it did in our country and claim it as their own.
China is now busy constructing a maritime rescue center in the Kagitingan Reef of the West Philippine Sea. Malacañang said the Philippines should perhaps be thankful to China for the establishment of a rescue center since it could help everybody, especially seamen in distress in that area.
Magdalo Party-list Representative Gary Alejano said the Palace statement would make it appear that our country is recognizing and agreeing to China’s right to occupy and govern the territory, allegedly an “act of surrender”. He disclosed that there was no guarantee that the supposed rescue center was meant to help troubled seamen since it could also be used for intelligence gathering and faster deployment of Chinese military forces in the area when needed.
Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio, an advocate of Manila’s rights over the disputed waters, said the government must defend the territory where China was building the rescue center and should file a note verbale concerning the said activity.
Surprisingly, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. revealed that he was in total agreement with the call to contest China’s construction efforts in Kagitingan Reef and even said that as a start, we can thank China after it raises the Philippine flag in the area. He also gave assurance that the administration has protested China’s activities in the disputed waters.
We understand that Locsin has his own way of dealing with the problem. But, perhaps, the administration should also inform the public of its actions to assure the people that it has not neglected its duty of fighting for the country’s sovereignty.
If no one is aware of the administration’s efforts, the common tao might assume that government leaders are surrendering the rights to our territory. Worse, people might think that our leaders are selling our territory clandestinely to foreigners.
China has been accused of bullying Filipinos, particularly the poor fishermen, in the West Philippine Sea in the past years. It has built artificial islands and militarized some of them. The previous administration filed a case against China’s illegal activities which the Philippines won in a United Nations-backed arbitral tribunal in 2016. Unfortunately, China has ignored the ruling to this day.
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