Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 31) – Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel is disappointed that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was silent on Chinese incursions in the West Philippine Sea and the recently expanded Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) in his second State of the Nation Address (SONA).
“There are two related areas where the President is given under our Constitution great authority: national defense and international relations,” Pimentel said in his contra-SONA Monday.
“Hence it was disappointing not to hear from the President in the SONA his explanation or point of view in the subject matters of the West Philippine Sea,” he said.
Though Marcos did not mention Beijing’s aggressive actions in the West Philippine Sea or the superpower’s continued rejection of the 2016 Hague Ruling that nullified its claim over the South China Sea, he vowed to defend the country’s sovereignty.
READ: Marcos silent on Chinese harassment in WPS in 2nd SONA, vows to defend sovereignty
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri disclosed that on Monday, the upper chamber would meet with the Department of Foreign Affairs, National Task Force-West Philippine Sea, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, and Armed Forces of the Philippines to discuss possible ways to enforce the country’s sovereignty over the contested waters.
This, after Sen. Risa Hontiveros filed a resolution which seeks to raise China’s harassment of Filipino vessels before the United Nations General Assembly through the DFA. Marcos deflected this and said that foreign policy was set by the executive, not the legislative department.
Zubiri, for his part, said he would file his own measure to recommend the end of bilateral talks with Beijing and the condemnation of its incursions on Philippine waters.
Pimentel continued: \”I was hoping that the President, given that he has wide latitude in defense and foreign policy, would have explained why we needed to expand the EDCA sites of the US military because there may be a neighboring country which looks at us and then says ‘you want to be a friend to all, an enemy to none’ and yet you are participating in a containment policy of another power.\”
In February, Manila and Washington agreed to expand the EDCA, creating four new US bases in the country on top of an existing five where American troops can be stationed indefinitely on a rotational basis. China denounced the move, saying it would destabilize peace in the region.
Meanwhile, Pimentel in his contra-SONA also lamented that the president didn’t mention the Philippines’ possible hosting of Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban, though Marcos said the government had yet to reach an agreement on it.
The minority leader also noted that Marcos did not mention the landing of US planes in Philippine airports.
