A senior vice chairman of the House Committee on National Defense and Security on Monday asked the leadership of the lower chamber to act immediately on a resolution seeking to convene the National Security Council (NSC) in the wake of China’s deployment of military weapons within the Philippines’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
In House Resolution (HR) 1855, Muntinlupa City Rep. Ruffy Biazon said the NSC should be convened now to address the latest report that China has deployed nuclear-capable bombers on one of the islands in the Spratlys.
“I am urging the House of Representatives to give urgent attention to the resolution I filed on May 9, 2018, HR 1855, which calls for the convening of the National Security Council to address the seeming escalation of military presence by China within Philippines’s EEZ,” he said.
Biazon said China’s weaponizing of islands within the Philippines’s EEZ and the deployment of military firepower “is a matter of serious national security concern.”
“This issue is beyond politics and involves a threat to national territorial integrity and security, and will affect the lives of not just the Filipinos of today but also those of future generations,” he said.
The lawmaker said the ability to harness and exploit natural resources within Philippine EEZ by Filipinos is endangered by the aggressive posture of China.
“Therefore, it is urgent for the Philippines to adopt a policy and position that will uphold national interest in terms of security, territorial integrity, natural resources and patrimony,” Biazon said.
“Such a policy is best crafted with the inputs from those who compose the National Security Council whose collective wisdom based on experience, expertise and diversity of opinion will ensure a balanced conclusion in favor of Philippine national interest,” he added.
Probe
AT the same time, Biazon also filed a resolution calling for a congressional investigation on the reported deployment by China of missiles in the Spratly islands.
In HR 1856, Biazon said the committee should conduct an inquiry on this reported military intrusion within the Philippines’s EEZ.
“Following reports that China has installed missiles capable of hitting surface-to-surface and surface-to-air targets on reclaimed islands in the West Philippine Sea, I have filed a resolution in the House of Representatives calling for the appropriate committee to conduct an inquiry on the matter,” he said.
Biazon, citing reports, added China had deployed anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missile systems on Kagitingan, Zamora and Panganiban reefs in the Spratly archipelago, noting that these capabilities are well within the EEZ and national territory of the Philippines.
He added the deployment of military assets clearly has national security implications on the Philippines and should be taken seriously as a threat.
“A foreign military presence within our sovereign territory, regardless of physical presence or projected capability to strike, should not be tolerated, especially if its presence is not upon invitation by the Philippines or covered by a mutual agreement or treaty,” he said.
Ineffective
For his part, Party-list Rep. Gary C. Alejano of Magdalo said the country’s “secret” diplomacy with China is “ineffective.”
“Whatever secret diplomacy the Duterte administration is pursuing, it is clearly not working. In fact, China even stepped up its aggressive actions under Duterte’s foreign policy,” he said.
The Duterte administration, through the Department of Foreign Affairs, has been giving us the same rhetoric: “kukumpirmahin, titignan, at pag-aaralan muna.” While they are insisting that there have been diplomatic actions, the result that we are seeing on the ground is an emboldened China pushing our limits,” Alejano said.
According to the lawmaker, the public demands transparency and concrete actions, and “not silence and neglect.”
“This is why the more effective approach is through multilateral engagements and open diplomacy and making use of the UN Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling as leverage. There is no need to go to war; as what Duterte has been insisting to the public,” he added.
Step in
Meanwhile, Party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani T. Zarate of Bayan Muna called on the international community to step in and for President Duterte to stop kowtowing to China.
Zarate also assailed China’s continued militarization of the West Philippine Sea and called its “increasingly hostile actions of deploying missile launchers, radar systems and now even nuclear-capable H-6K bombers in the Paracels chain of islands as igniting violence and even war or armed confrontation by rival claimants in the contested area.”
“President Duterte should stop kowtowing to China because China’s actions are further aggravating the tension in the region. China should stop it. Even though the surface-to- air missile launchers, radar systems and H-6K bombers they deployed are in Woody Island, which is part of the Paracels claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan, they have started doing the same in Philippine territory,” Zarate said.
According to Zarate, in addition to the international support against China’s provocative acts, “we must also strengthen our own claim and fortify our positions to counter China’s moves.”
He also proposed the deployment of more troops to the Kalayaan Group of Islands, the deployment of more Coast Guard ships to the contested areas, and the rehabilitation of the airstrip on Pag-asa Island the soonest possible time.
“As it is China’s expansionist policy based on its 9-dash line theory has been proven without legal, historical and moral basis. Every Filipino here or abroad should defend our territory and exclusive economic zones,” Zarate said.
Meanwhile, Malacañang expressed “serious concern” about the reports on the presence of China bombers in South China Sea.
Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque Jr. said on Monday that the country has no independent verification, but the Palace took note of the reports that came out.
“But, nonetheless, we take note of the reports that appeared, and we express our serious concerns anew on its impact on constructive efforts to maintain peace and stability in the region,” he said.
Roque also reiterated that Philippines does not consider China a threat to security. “Even if we don’t feel that China is a security threat to us, for as long as there are weapons there, there could be mistakes in the discharge of these weapons and any threat of the use of force in one of the world’s busiest sea lanes, which happens also to be the sea lane where our oil supply passes through and bulk of our exports and imports pass through is a reason for concern to us,” Roque said.
He added the government is pursuing diplomatic initiatives to address the situation, noting that they will bring this issue again in the bilateral mechanism that the government has agreed upon with China.
“This bilateral mechanism meets twice a year, and I was told that there would be a scheduled meeting for the second quarter, possibly in June, but not yet confirmed. So the matter will be brought up in the bilateral mechanism that we have established on the West Philippine Sea specifically with China,” he said.
He also cited the Department of Foreign Affairs’s position that they do not need to announce everything they do publicly.
“Obviously, diplomatic communication and relations and negotiations is subject to exception to freedom of information and, likewise, of course, we have always expressed serious concerns, it’s not as if we take it sitting down,” he said.
With reports from Bernadette D. Nicolas