Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 18) — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is seeking a “better way” to address the maritime dispute between the Philippines and China as he lamented Beijing’s recent incursions in Manila’s waters.
This was one of the topics Marcos raised during his meeting with Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian earlier this week, the President said on Saturday.I said we have to find a way around this. Because if we are such close friends, such as China and the Philippines, these are not the kind of incidents that we should be talking about,” Marcos told reporters on the sidelines of a Philippine Military Academy event in Baguio City.So we are hoping that we can find a better way rather than these incursions into our maritime territory and the rather aggressive acts that we have been seeing in the past few weeks and months,” he added.
Marcos summoned Huang on Tuesday to talk about the East Asian giant’s recent acts against the Philippine Coast Guard and local fishermen — including the controversial laser-pointing incident in Ayungin Shoal.
The chief executive said he also reminded the ambassador that “this was not what we agreed upon with President Xi [Jinping] when I visited him in Beijing.
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