Four past PHL Chief Executives attend President Duterte’s first NSC meeting

PNA photo

MANILA—All the four past Presidents before President Rodrigo R. Duterte attended on Wednesday the initial National Security Council (NSC) meeting of the current administration.

Video grab from the state television station, PTV, showed the attendance of Duterte and former Presidents Benigno Aquino III, Gloria Mapacagal-Arroyo, who is also the current Pampanga Second District Representative; Joseph Estrada, the current mayor of the City of Manila; and Fidel V. Ramos.

In a briefing Wednesday, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella declined to give specifics on the topics of the NSC meeting but said the former Chief Executives were expected to extend their “support.

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Asked what the expected support is for, Abella said this would be “for our Philippine efforts.”

“I mean at the end of the day, they are all Presidents of the Philippines. It would be a cooperative venture,” he added.

The Presidential Communications Office (PCO), on its Facebook post Tuesday, said government’s Road Map for Peace and Development would be presented during the NSC meeting along with “vital policies and strategies on important matters, including the recent ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration on the West Philippine Sea.”

The Netherlands-based Permanent Court of Arbitration on June 12 decided in favor of the Philippines on the jurisdiction claims on three islands in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) namely Mischief Reef, Second Thomas Shoal and Reed Bank

The Tribunal said these islands which “are submerged at high tide, form part of the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of the Philippines, and are not overlapped by any possible entitlement of China.”

”The Tribunal therefore concluded that China had violated the Philippines’ sovereign rights with respect to its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf,” it said.

Mischief Reef is also called Panganiban Reef in the Philippines, Second Thomas Shoal is known as Ayungin Shoal and Reed Bank as Recto Bank.

NSC is chaired by the President and is composed of about 35 leader-members from the executive and legislative branches of government, including past Presidents of the Republic, the current Vice President, Senate President, House Speaker, the majority and minority leaders of both Houses of Congress, the Chairs of Senate and House Committees involved in national security concerns, and various members of the Cabinet.