PH refusal to hold talks with China a bad move — Marcos

Sen. Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. (Facebook)

MANILA — “China opened the door and we shut it.”

This is what Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said on Wednesday referring to China’s reported offer to hold talks on the West Philippine Sea dispute.

Marcos said that the country’s continued refusal to conduct a dialogue with China “will force the superpower to take a more hardline position” in the disputed territories.

“The Chinese said let’s talk and we snubbed them. It’s like the Philippine government itself is encouraging China to take and maintain an unbending stance on the issue,” he added.

Marcos said that he sees “more than enough reason” to push through with bilateral talks.

“We should not be snobbish. I can’t see any reason at all why we are not talking to China. On the contrary, there are more than enough obvious reasons why we should talk to superpower China,”  he said.

“We’re strategically important to any great power in Asia-Pacific, but we have to play that role even-handedly. We have to stop thinking in terms of kakampi ko ang Chinese, kakampi ko ang Kano. Ang kakampi mo lang Pilipino,” he added.

Marcos said that by talking to China, the Philippines could lay down its terms and find out a solution in the dispute.

“So talk, and tell them: we are not happy with what you are doing and we do not agree with what you are doing. But the next thing you say is: how do we fix this?”

“We do not want war. Arbitration is not one that is going to be recognized by the Chinese. So it has to be negotiations,”   he said.