Foreign Affairs urged to send envoy to Asean, UN

Thursday, June 16, 2011

MANILA — Senator Edgardo Angara urged the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Wednesday to assemble a team of diplomats to seek help from international organizations over tensions in the South China Sea.
“Clearly, this issue involves more than the Philippines and China. The resolution to this dispute cannot be unilateral. We must seek the help of our allies in the region, primarily the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), to help us resolve this conflict once and for all,” he said.
The team may also have to ask the help of the United Nations (UN) in negotiating a peaceful solution to territorial disputes over the Spratly islands, he added.

“This specialized team should possess the diplomatic and strategic skills, training and knowledge required to successfully negotiate through a dispute of this magnitude and follow through until it is concluded. We must not let what happened to Sabah happen to the Spratly Islands. We lost it because no one followed up on it after the administration changed,” Angara said.
The senator, who is vice chairman of the Senate committee on foreign affairs, said that although the Armed Forces of the Philippines cannot match the military might of China, the Philippine government should not be “any less assertive in protecting its territorial claims.”
Angara said securing the country’s claim over the parts of the Spratlys that fall within Philippine territory could lead to self-sufficiency in oil.
“Consider that the Malampaya gas field project is just a small fraction of that huge reservoir, yet it has provided a significant amount of fuel to the Philippines,” he added.
Senator Loren Legarda, Senate committee on foreign affairs chairman, earlier reminded all parties with claims to the Spratlys to adhere to a declaration of conduct signed in 2002.
The declaration calls on the 11 nations that signed it “to resolve territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means, without resorting to the threat or use of force.”
Meanwhile, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is opposed to a proposed boycott of Chinese goods, saying the situation needs “skilled diplomacy and (the) engagement of international bodies.”
“In case we’re contemplating some sort of suicidal trade embargo or boycott, if they were to retaliate likewise, the outcome would be pneumonia for us while they would probably get a minor rash in a small area of their large physique,” he said.
Senator Ralph Recto, on the other hand, supports the boycott call of Albay Governor Joey Salceda. The governor said a boycott of Chinese goods would hurt China “where it counts.”
Salceda was erstwhile economic adviser of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
US meddling slammed
A progressive party-list lawmaker, meanwhile, assailed the United States for “meddling” into the territorial dispute between China and Philippines over the oil-rich Spratly Group of Islands.
Bayan Muna party-list Representative Teddy Casino also criticized President Benigno Aquino III for “political mendicancy” in asking for the US government’s support on the issue.
“It is not surprising that President Aquino is delighted about the statement of US Ambassador to the Philippines Harry Thomas that they will work with the Philippine government on issues including the disputed South China Sea and the Spratlys. What is lamentable is that the US is once again playing interventionist politics and that Malacañang is touting its own political mendicancy,” Casiño said.
Using the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty as a pretext and invoking partnership with the Philippines in all subjects do not justify the US interference in the country’s foreign affairs, the lawmaker added.
“In fact, the cold war era treaty with the US should be terminated and the Philippine ambassador to the US should stop shopping for ukay-ukay (second hand) military surplus from US Foreign Military Sales and Financing,” he pointed out.
The US move, including a US Senate resolution condemning China, Casiño said, “only provokes more tension in the disputed area.”
“The statement of US senators Jim Webb and James Inhofe condemning China on the issue creates more tension. So are the aggravating words with China being issued from Malacanang,” Casino said.
Progressive group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) added that the US engaged in double-talk in the Spratlys issue, a reality that seems lost on the Aquino government.
“After saying that it will not openly take sides in the Spratlys issue, it is now saying that it will continue working with the Philippines on all issues including the Spartlys,” said Bayan Secretary General Renato Reyes.
The group said that while it opposes China’s incursions and muscle flexing in the disputed region, it also believes that any US role would be counterproductive for the Philippines claim.
President Aquino has been quoted as saying that the “presence of treaty partners ensures that all will have freedom of navigation and will conform to international law.”
“It’s ridiculous how Philippine officials are beside themselves with glee upon hearing the magic words from the US. It’s like Aquino is encouraging the US to be a global police to ensure freedom of navigation and conformity to international law. Doesn’t he know that the US will always ask for something in return and will also invoke its own agenda for Asia?” Reyes added.
Naval exercises
Combined naval units from the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the United States will be in the Sulu Sea, Malacca Strait and Celebes Sea in the next 10 days for its naval exercises amid the rising tension in the Spratlys islands.
Another bilateral training exercise between the Philippines and the US will be held from June 28 to July 8.
Meantime, a Filipino bishop who heads a church social action arm has promised to disseminate information about the Philippines’ claim over the Spratlys Islands.
Information dissemination about the Spratlys row may be held at the grassroots level, Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines-National Secretariat for Social Action (Nassa) executive secretary Fr. Edwin Gariguez said.
He said the church can play a big role in educating people regarding to Spratlys issue.
The CBCP-Nassa serves as the social action arm of the CBCP and as the central agency for all the Social Action Centers (SACs) based in the different dioceses in the country.
A total of 85 of these SACs are instrumental in coordinating parishes’ social action efforts and Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs).
The Church needs to involve itself in the dispute since the Philippines’ sovereignty is at stake, he said. (Jonathan de Santos/Kathrina Alvarez/AMN/Sunnex)
Source: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2011/06/16/foreign-affairs-urged-send-envoy-asean-un-161375
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