Category: Foreign Affairs

Is Duterte China’s accomplice in SCS military plans?

Published by Ellen on May 22, 2018

The PLA air force planes conducting training exercises, Nov. 19, 2017. The PLA air force recently conducted a combat air patrol in the South China Sea and conducted training exercises after passing over the Bashi Channel and Miyako Strait. Photo by Chen Liang of Xinhua.

Last Sunday, former Solicitor General Florin T. Hilbay tweeted, “12 July 2016 was an interesting day. I, with Justices Carpio & Jardeleza, went to Malacanang to explain to the President the decision in Phils. v. China. I received the decision by email from the tribunal. The President that we briefed was Rodrigo Duterte and his full cabinet.”

July 12, 2016 was the day the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague released the decision on the case the Philippine government filed against China on Jan. 22, 2013, when the president was Benigno Aquino III.

The Philippines asked the Tribunal to rule on three basic issues: the validity of China’s nine-dash line map; low tide elevations (rocks or reefs that can be seen only during low tide and disappear during high tide) where China has built permanent structures should be declared as forming part of the Philippine Continental shelf (200 nautical mile); and the waters outside the 12 nautical miles surrounding the Panatag Island (Scarbourough shoal) should be declared as part of the Philippines 200 nautical mile economic exclusive zone.

Aside from loans, what support can Xi Jinping give Duterte?

Published by Ellen on May 18, 2018

Pres. Duterte and Chinese Pres. Xi Jinping in Beijing, Oct. 2016.

President Duterte takes pride in his being smart in matters of geopolitics. After all, as he more than once told his captive audience, he is a graduate of Foreign Service at the Lyceum University.

Recently, however, he revised it to just say he took up foreign service after he was exposed not to be in the list of those who graduated from Lyceum with a degree in foreign service.

Last Tuesday he again demonstrated his expertise in geopolitics belittling the United States for having “lost its will to fight.”

Duterte’s achievements

Published by Ellen on May 15, 2018

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque announced last week that President Duterte’s State of the Nation address on July 23 will follow a new format where he will be talking to the people on matters close to his heart.
He will not be enumerating his achievements, Roque said, adding that that would be done at a separate occasion.

“So iyong mga achievement, siguro may mga ibang pagkakataon nang isa-isahin iyan,” he said.

Critics of Duterte immediately retorted on social media: “What achievements?”

Aba,marami. Plenty, plenty.

Benham Rise trip: Duterte’s latest comedy act

Published by Ellen on April 30, 2018

China builds a monument on Kagitingan Reef that the Philippines claims as part of its territory in South China Sea and President Duterte announces he will sail to Benham Rise, an underwater plateau east of Luzon that has been declared part of the country’s extended continental shelf, to show the world that he will die for a land mass that is not even part of Philippine territory.

In his speech before the Free Masons at the SMX Convention Center in Davao City April 26, Duterte again justified his selling out to China based on mistaken assumptions.

Pres. Duterte shares a light moment with his special assistant Bong Go,House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on the sidelines of the 102nd Annual Communication of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of the Free and Accepted Mason in the Philippines at the SMX Convention Center in Davao City, April 26, 2018.Malacañang photo by Joey Dalumpines.

In disarray

Published by Ellen on March 22, 2018

It was Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo the President listened to in the ICC withdrawal decision. Malacanang photo by King Rodriguez.

The statements of Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque and the tweets of Philippine ambassador to the United Nations Teodoro Locsin, Jr related to President Duterte’s decision to withdraw Philippine membership in the International Criminal Court gave the public insights about the disarray in the Malacañang team.

The oblique remarks of the two officials give credence to “don’t-quote-me” info from Malacañang insiders that it was Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo that the President talked with before the 15-page statement that he didn’t even sign was released to the media.

Duterte is mistaken if he thinks he has escaped from ICC by withdrawing PH membership

Published by Ellen on March 16, 2018

Pres. Rodrigo Duterte, the first president in Southeast Asia to be the subject of an examination by the International Criminal Court. Malacañang photo.

If Pres. Duterte thinks he is now out of the reach of the International Criminal Court because he directed the Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to withdraw the ratification of the Philippines of the Rome Statute which established the ICC, he is mistaken.

Former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay said Duterte has no unilateral constitutional authority to withdraw from the Rome Statute of the ICC. The Rome Statute was ratified by the Senate, which shares the Treaty Power with the President. Withdrawal, as a constitutional matter, requires a similar concurrence.”

Hilbay also said, the withdrawal cannot be made “immediately”.

Roque is best adviser to Duterte on joint exploration with China

Published by Ellen on March 9, 2018

Pres. Duterte congratulates Harry Roque as his spokesperson

It’s good that President Duterte has Harry Roque with him as he seems to have been convinced by China to start the joint exploration in Reed Bank also known as Recto Bank – an undertaking that China had been wanting to do and had been generous with its enticement to the Philippine government.

In an interview with Karen Davila in ANC’s Headstart, Roque, presidential spokesperson, said the cooperation with China will be taking off from “the result of a joint maritime seismic exploration agreement. This will now actually entail joint exploration and possible exploitation of natural resources.”

“We have gone beyond determining if there are resources” and “The only issue is now, is it commercially viable,” he said.

Roque and Davila were talking about the Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking or JMSU entered into by the Philippines, China and Vietnam on March 14, 2005.

Again, the risks of joint exploration in PH EEZ

Published by Ellen on March 7, 2018

A day after President Duterte talked about” joint exploration” and “co-ownership” with the Chinese last Feb. 28 in Marawi City, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque was with Karen Davila in ANC’s Headstart.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque talks about joint exploration in PH EEZ with China in Headstart hosted by Karen Davila

Davila was following up this statement by Duterte: “Ngayon offer nila joint exploration, di parang co-ownership. Parang dalawa tayong may-ari niyan. Eh,di mas maganda,yan kaysa away. (Now their offer is joint exploration which is like co-ownership. It’s like both of us are owners. That good, better than fighting.)”

Tension in Taiwan Strait

Published by Ellen on February 18, 2018

It’s not only in the disputed waters of South China Sea that China is flexing its muscle. It is also making troubling moves in Taiwan Strait.

But the big difference is, while the Philippine leadership acquiesces with nary a whimper amid China’s militarization of the seven reefs it had transformed into artificial islands in the disputed waters of Spratlys, Taiwan is protesting what it says is China’s violation of a 2015 agreement not to use the flight route that divides them.

A statement from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines states: “On Jan. 4, Taiwan government protested mainland China’s unilateral launch the northbound M503 flight route in the Taiwan Strait and the W121, W122, and W123 east-west extension routes.

What’s going on in Benham Rise?

Published by Ellen on January 28, 2018

The decision of the Duterte government to allow Chinese scientists to do research in Benham Rise, renamed Philippine Rise, a 13-million-hectare undersea region off the provinces of Isabela and Aurora has generated heated discussions layered with patriotism, nationalism, ignorance, sinophobia – all combined.

In 2009, the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) declared that Benham Rise is part of the Philippine’s extended continental shelf (350 nautical miles from the shores).

UNCLOS’s declaration gave the Philippines sovereign rights over the area but not sovereignty – the supreme right of the state to command obedience within the area.

As explained by Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio, the Philippine’s sovereign rights over Benham Rise includes “to explore and exploit the oil, gas and other mineral resources in Benham Rise, and even the sedentary species (e.g., abalone, clams and oysters.”

Carpio also said, “Other states, like China, have the right to conduct in Benham Rise (1) fishery research because the fish in the ECS belongs to mankind; (2) surveys on water salinity and water currents because the water column in the ECS belongs to mankind; and (3) depth soundings for navigational purposes because there is freedom of navigation in the ECS. If the Chinese vessels were looking for submarine passages and parking spaces, that would be part of freedom of navigation and the Philippines has no reason to complain.”

Amid the controversy, the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute issued the following statement explaining the project they are doing with Chinese scientists. The statement is a bit long but I deemed it right to give to you in its entirety for us to better understand the project: