“We are not hampered by the absence of a joint communiqué. It certainly would have helped us but we are not hampered by the absence of a joint communiqué,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.
He said the country would relentlessly continue to find a peaceful solution to the dispute over the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).
When asked what would be President Aquino’s approach when he goes back to Cambodia this November for the ASEAN Summit, Lacierda said that the President would certainly push for ASEAN centrality.
“Number one, we will see what the developments will be from here on until the next meeting of the ASEAN leaders. But definitely, one thing that the President has emphasized and will emphasize again in the coming meeting will be the ASEAN centrality,” he said.
“That has always been the whole idea of ASEAN being a regional bloc – it is to emphasize the centrality of ASEAN. But between now and until the next meeting of leaders, there may be some developments and we won’t be able to speculate as to what precisely the President will speak on,” Lacierda noted.
As to statements saying the Philippines should give up its territorial claims in the West Philippine Sea because of the absence of a strong military, Lacierda said the country’s approach was to push for a peaceful solution through diplomatic means.
“They’re looking at it from a strictly military point of view. We’re coming from a perspective where we believe that a diplomatic peaceful solution can be achieved. And that’s what we’ve been hammering on and that’s what we believe in, and that’s the position we will continue to maintain,” he explained.
Asked about possible shortcomings on the part of the Philippines as reason why a joint communiqué was not issued, Lacierda said it was Cambodia that probably had to explain why such was not issued.
“You must remember that the joint communiqué the Philippines was asking for was to recognize that there was a discussion on the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal standoff. That was the only thing that the Philippines was requesting and, even on that point alone, the Cambodian foreign minister refused to issue a joint communiqué, that’s why we are disappointed. Again, we will be hoping our diplomatic channels may be able to convince Cambodia to see the side of the Philippines that this is something that the ASEAN as a whole should look into with interest,” Lacierda said.
Lacierda added that despite the presence of Chinese fishing vessels in the disputed Spratlys or Kalayaan Island Group, the authorities would still have to assess whether to send back Philippine vessels.
“Our policy is to de-escalate tensions,” he stressed.
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesperson Raul Hernandez said that the government would continue to monitor the location of the Chinese fishing vessels that arrived in Spratly Islands on Sunday.
“According to Secretary (Albert) del Rosario, he’s seeing the aggressive infringement of the Chinese in our maritime domain, territory and exclusive economic zone because of creeping imposition of their claims in the South China Sea,” Hernandez said yesterday.
Hernandez earlier noted that the Philippines will file a protest against China if the Chinese ships venture inside the Philippines’ EEZ.
“If they violate our sovereign rights in our EEZ, we’ll file a protest,” he said.
Reconnaissance monitoring
Meanwhile, the Western Command (Wescom) is conducting an air and maritime monitoring on the Chinese fishing fleet composed of 30 vessels that are currently fishing within the vicinity of the Kagitingan Reef (Johnson Reef) in the hotly contested Spratlys archipelago.
“We have been conducting reconnaissance flights since yesterday morning,” a Wescom official said, adding that the Philippine Navy ships are also conducting patrols within the country’s territorial waters in the region.
Kagitingan Reef is well within the hexagon area that includes Kalayaan town in Pag-asa Island. Kagitingan Reef is currently occupied and heavily fortified by Chinese troops.
Nearby are also several islets where Vietnamese troops are garrisoned. Further north but also close to Kagitingan Reef is Titu Aba, the biggest of the more than 800 islets, atolls, reefs, cays and sandbars, occupied by Taiwanese troops.
