President-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte said he would refrain from commenting on the territorial dispute in the South China Sea, pending the decision on the case filed by the Philippines before the United Nations (UN) Permanent Court of Arbitration, which is expected to be out in July.
Duterte also said he would consult the pertinent government officials before making statements on the territorial dispute, which could have repercussions on the Philippines’s position, coming from the top official in the country. Earlier, Malacañang urged Duterte to be more circumspect in issuing statements on foreign policy, since he, being the President-elect, would be in command of the Philippines’s foreign policy and his pronouncements on certain issues could be misinterpreted to the detriment of the country’s foreign relations.
“In the West Philippine Sea issue, we shut up. We will wait for the decision before we make any public statement. We’re just waiting for the arbitral judgment,” Duterte said during his speech on Monday at the Davao City flag-raising ceremony, where he still serves as mayor until noon of June 30, when he would have already been sworn in as the Philippines’s 16th president.
“I will not dwell on it yet. I have to talk to everybody in the government to decide [on the matter], including the military,” he said.
Earlier, Duterte added that he would try to enforce the ruling of UN’s arbitration court, which is expected to be favorable toward the Philippines, since China has questioned the jurisdiction of the court and did not take part in the proceedings.
However, Duterte said should no benefits come out for the Philippines within the next two years after the decision, he would seek bilateral negotiations with China to settle the territorial dispute.
He said that, instead of agitating China with the Philippines’s unilateral decision to file the arbitration case against China and haul them into court to settle the issue of economic rights over the South China Sea, the government under him would try to maintain cordial relations with China, even amid the territorial dispute to get mutual benefits for both sides.
Among the projects, which Duterte said he would push for funding from China, are railway projects throughout the Philippines, especially in Mindanao, which is now seen as a new area for economic growth, because of the focus that the new administration will put on the development in the area.
The incoming Department of Finance had already signified its intention to fast track the Philippines’s inclusion into the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) by paying the country’s subscription to the bank’s capital.
The total capital stock of the AIIB is $100 billion, 20 percent of which is paid-in. The indicative paid-in capital of the Philippines is $196 million—which is payable in five years, or $39 million per annum. The AIIB is a multilateral development bank that aims to fund infrastructure projects in the Asia-Pacific region.
Last December 31 the Philippines beat the deadline for signing with the AIIB as the 57th and last founding member. By doing so, the Philippines has signified its intention to join the treaty and subscribe to $979.1 million worth of shares of stocks in the AIIB, or roughly 1 percent of the total outstanding capital stock of the bank.
Stakeholders from the government, banks and business in the country have earlier expressed their support for the Philippines’s decision to join the AIIB.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor for the Monetary Stability Sector Diwa C. Guinigundo told the BusinessMirror that being a signatory to the AIIB further liberalizes the choices of infrastructure investors on their funding requirements—thus, providing them with greater ease to implement the projects more quickly.
“While we have sufficient domestic liquidity and credit, current banking regulations do not allow banks to be unduly exposed to single or a few borrowers,” Guinigundo said in an interview. “The resources that will be made available through the AIIB could be a potential source of additional funding for infrastructures.”
Image credits: AP/Bullit Marquez