A senior lawmaker on Thursday urged China to withdraw all its ships from the West Philippine Sea (WPS) to show good faith in its offer to resolve territorial disputes with the Philippines in the area.
“President Xi Jinping should recall all those ships, whether military, coast guard, militia, or civilian so our Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard can freely conduct patrols and our fisherfolk can do fishing activities without fear of harassment,” Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez was reacting to Chinese media reports that the Chinese leader has told visiting President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. that Beijing is willing to resume talks on oil and gas exploration and resolve maritime issues in a cordial manner.
For his part, President Marcos said he received President Xi’s promise for a compromise and solution that could allow Filipino fishermen to operate in their historic fishing grounds.
“We also discussed what we can do to move forward, to avoid any possible mistakes, misunderstandings that could trigger a bigger problem than what we already have,” the Philippine leader said.
Moreover, Rodriguez has been a consistent critic of Chinese activities in the WPS and Beijing’s refusal to recognize a 2016 ruling by an international arbitral tribunal recognizing areas the Philippines claims as part of its territory and invalidating China’s ownership of almost all of the vast South China Sea that includes the WPS.
Days before President Marcos flew to Beijing, the Philippine military reported a “swarming” of Chinese vessels in the WPS. Rodriguez welcomed President Xi’s statement, saying, “It’s a good starting point for talks.”
However, he said China should immediately allow Filipino fishermen to fish in Scarborough or Panatag Shoal (locally known as Bajo de Masinloc), a traditional fishing ground.
“The Chinese Coast Guard should remove its presence there and should not chase away our countrymen. That area is part of our 200-mile exclusive economic zone [EEZ],” he said.
Scarborough is about 120 miles off Pangasinan and Zambales.
As for oil and gas exploration, Rodriguez said the Philippine government “could immediately allow it in areas near Palawan, like Recto Bank, which is also part of our EEZ, provided that China respects our territorial rights there.”
“We could engage Chinese companies as contractors,” he said.
He said the government has stopped a local company from doing exploration activities in Recto Bank to avoid aggravating its territorial dispute with China.
Before stepping down in June last year, then President Duterte ended talks with Beijing due to what then Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Tocsin Jr. described as unresolved sovereignty and territorial issues.
Transparent
Meanwhile, House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro called on Marcos to be transparent on all the deals he and his delegation signed with China so that the public can scrutinize these agreements.
“The Kaliwa and Chico river dam deals with China even reached the Supreme Court and the Court warned the Duterte administration against the use of such confidentiality clauses in loan agreements,” she added.
“We hope that the 14 deals signed in China would be nothing like the Kaliwa and Chico River dam deal, which contains provisions limiting the contractors to Chinese companies and disqualifying Filipinos, imposing a confidentiality clause, requiring the Philippines to waive any defense on the basis of sovereignty over its patrimonial assets, and imposing that any disputes shall be resolved by a Chinese tribunal in China and Hong Kong using Chinese laws,” said the deputy minority leader.
Castro also noted that there is a provision in the 1987 Constitution and a Constitutional Commission transcript stating that loan agreements must be submitted to Congress before they are executed, and “we hope that the recently signed loan agreements with China would be forwarded to Congress for scrutiny.
“At the end of the day, it is the Filipino people who will benefit or suffer due to these new deals with China and it is but right for us to know the details of these deals,” said Castro.
Last Wednesday, the Philippines and China signed 14 bilateral agreements during President Marcos Jr.’s visit to Beijing.
These agreements include:
Communication mechanism on maritime issues between the two foreign ministries;
Joint action plan for 2023-2025 on agriculture and fisheries cooperation
Memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Belt & Road Initiative
Handover of certificate for PH-Sino Center for Agricultural Technology-Technological Cooperation Phase III
MOU on digital information and communications technology cooperation
Protocol of phytosanitary requirements for the export of fresh durians from PH to China
Handover of certificate of two China-aid bridge projects in Manila (Binondo-Intramuros bridge and Estrella-Pantaleon bridge)
Framework agreement for the RMB-portion of the loan financing for three priority projects of Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)
Four loan agreements for mixed-credit financing (US dollar-RMB) of 3 priority bridge projects of DPWH
Agreed on implementation of MOU on tourism
MOU on electronic commerce cooperation
MOU on Development Cooperation Plan 2023-2025
Agreement on economic and technical cooperation
Mutual recognition agreement between Bureau of Customs and Chinese counterpart on authorized economic operator program.