Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 21) — While he is in favor of bringing the issue of China’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Senator Francis Tolentino on Friday said preparations should have started early this year.
“We have to be aware that before the General Assembly accepts a resolution, it has to be part of the agenda and to include that in the agenda making process of the United Nations General Assembly would take time and preparation. We should have started this February,” he told CNN Philippines’ The Source.
Once sessions resume next week, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said the upper chamber will pass a resolution urging the government to raise the issue of China’s aggression to the UNGA in September.
This development came after several reports on the China Coast Guard allegedly putting at risk the lives of Filipinos who were in a resupply mission in Ayungin Shoal this year. The Armed Forces of the Philippines on July 7 also raised concerns over the growing number of Chinese fishing vessels in the disputed waters which was seen as a “threat” to oil and gas-rich Recto Bank’s security.
Tolentino said the matter should be part of the preliminary agenda by August since there are also other topics that will have to be considered, such as the war in Ukraine and rising prices of commodities like wheat and petroleum.
The senator said he will meet with Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo on Friday to discuss whether the country’s representative to the UNGA can preempt this by \”preliminarily accessing the secretariat of the UNGA,\” and informing them of Manila’s plan to bring up the subject.
Senator Risa Hontiveros also backed this possible move.
She filed Senate Resolution 659 in June, calling on the government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs, to sponsor a resolution before the UNGA that will call on China to stop its harassment of Filipino vessels in the West Philippine Sea.
