MANILA –Cagayan De Oro City 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez on Tuesday urged the federal government to forge extra safety pacts with different nations following China’s continued employment of harassment ways within the West Philippine Sea.
Rodriguez mentioned this example needs to be stopped as he urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to enter into extra protection and safety cooperation agreements not solely with Japan but in addition with Australia, Canada, New Zealand and even South Korea.
“We should negotiate and enter into Visiting Forces Agreements (VFAs), like the one we have with the United States, in the face of heightened threats from China, the latest of which is the use of a military-grade laser on our Coast Guard vessel, which temporarily blinded its personnel,” he mentioned.
Rodriguez famous that China has been doing these sort of harassments many occasions previously and the federal government ought to do one thing extra strong in defending the nation’s sovereignty.
Marcos earlier introduced his intention to forge a VFA with Japan throughout his five-day go to to Tokyo final week.
He mentioned an settlement just like the VFA with the US “is certainly under study.” Japan has expressed readiness to take part in joint army workouts and humanitarian missions within the Philippines.
The Philippine Coast Guard vessel on which a military-grade laser was used was aiding a Navy ship resupplying a platoon of troopers stationed at Ayungin Shoal, which is a part of Philippine territory below worldwide regulation.
Beijing has claimed that the Coast Guard ship intruded into Chinese waters and urged Manila to respect its territorial sovereignty.
“How can we intrude into our own territory? How about China heeding our incessant appeals for them to respect our territorial rights and interests and stop harassing and bullying our Coast Guard and Navy personnel and our fishermen?” he requested.
Rodriguez, nevertheless, lauded the United States for denouncing the military-grade-laser incident and for reaffirming its obligations below the 1951 RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty.
Meanwhile, Rep. Robert “Ace” Barbers strongly condemned China authorities after the current aggression and provocation in opposition to Philippine Coast Guard personnel.
“Now that China has finally owned up to its cowardly act of bullying us in our territorial seas, we condemn in the strongest terms these acts of aggression,” Barbers mentioned.
“We call on our allies to help us in the implementation of the arbitral ruling that gave us territorial jurisdiction over the seas now being occupied illegally and without an iota of basis neither in history nor in International Law, by China,” Barbers mentioned.
In an announcement on Tuesday (Manila time), US Department of State spokesman Ned Price mentioned China’s “conduct was provocative and unsafe, resulting in the temporary blindness of the crew members of the BRP Malapascua and interfering with the Philippines’ lawful operations in and around Second Thomas Shoal.”
“More broadly, the PRC’s (People’s Republic of China) dangerous operational behavior directly threatens regional peace and stability, infringes upon freedom of navigation in the South China Sea as guaranteed under international law, and undermines the rules-based international order,” he mentioned.
Price, citing the 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), mentioned China has no lawful maritime claims over the Ayungin Shoal. He added that the US stands with its ally, the Philippines, in upholding the rules-based worldwide maritime order.
The US spokesman reaffirmed that “an armed assault on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or plane, together with these of the Philippine Coast Guard within the South China Sea, would invoke US mutual protection commitments below Article IV of the 1951 US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty.
As a consequence, Price referred to as on China to abide by the PCA ruling and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in an effort to keep away from any significant issue sooner or later. (PNA)