Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 15) — Senator Francis Escudero on Tuesday said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s statement on China’s claim that the Philippine government made a commitment to remove BRP Sierra Madre from Ayungin Shoal should be deemed final.
Marcos on Aug. 9 said that he was not aware of such an agreement the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was claiming. If such a deal exists, the president said he rescinds it.
Speaking to CNN Philippines’ The Source, Escudero said the chief executive’s words “should’ve put an end to the issue.”
“Nagsalita ang pangulo, sa ilalim ng saligang batas (The president already spoke, under the Constitution) he is the chief architect of our foreign policy,\” Escudero said.
\”And previous presidents could not have enacted a policy that is irrepealable… If he says kung meron man (if there is such), I hereby rescind that then that is it,” he added..
The senator further pointed out that it is no longer important who possibly made the deal and if it was true.
What is important, he said, is that under the current policy of the Philippines, BRP Sierra Madre will remain on Ayungin Shoal.
Escudero said it might help if the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) would formalize Marcos’ words by issuing a written statement and sending it to Beijing.
BRP Sierra Madre has been in Ayungin Shoal since 1999, which is located 104 nautical miles west of Palawan and is well within the Philippines’ 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
The Philippines maintains it has sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the Kalayaan island group, which China is also claiming through its nine-dash line.
However, a 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling invalidated Beijing’s expansive claims in the South China Sea.
To further strengthen this landmark ruling, Escudero said the Office of the Solicitor General should spearhead the filing of recognition of foreign ruling before the Supreme Court.
This will ensure that there is a law through a Court decision recognizing the claim of the Philippines in the contested waters and no president or Congress will be able to pass a policy contradicting this, he noted.
‘Let’s formally write to China’
House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Party-List Rep. France Castro also asked the DFA to “initiate in writing a letter” to the Chinese Embassy regarding the claim as a supposed 2021 talk between the Philippines and China also happened, or during the Duterte administration.
Zhou Zhiyong, the Chinese Embassy’s deputy chief of mission and minister counselor, made this claim on Monday, saying the talk led to a consensus to remove the vessel in the contested waterway.
At a House hearing for the proposed 2024 budget of the Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday afternoon, Manalo said the agency has never been provided with any report on such an agreement and that China “never mentioned” it “even after 2021.”
Castro asked if the DFA has conducted an inquiry into reasons why China is making such a claim.
\”Kumbaga kung galing ito sa Embassy ng China [If this is from the Chinese Embassy], this is official,\” she said.
“We have already asked China [on] many levels for a copy but they have never given us a copy,\” the DFA chief said.
\”We could keep on asking them but I never received a hard copy of such an agreement,\” he added.
“I suppose we could write them and ask them for a copy,\” he also said. \”Let’s see, but we have asked them on numerous occasions, especially after they said there was such an agreement.\”
