Palace tells Robredo to be ‘more circumspect’ in making comments on WPS issue

The spokesman also said the vice president, like “the usual detractors and critics” of Duterte, may have been “carried away by their nitpicking and habitual engagement in useless and unproductive semantics.” (File photo: VP Leni Robredo/Facebook)

In giving statements regarding the issue on the West Philippine Sea (WPS), Malacañang urged Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo to be “more circumspect” and “rely more” on her instinct as a lawyer and mother.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said this on Friday, September 13, after Robredo said it is “profoundly disappointing and extremely responsible” for President Rodrigo Duterte to “ignore” the 2016 arbitral ruling on the WPS in favor of a joint oil and gas exploration with China.

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Panelo reiterated that the Chief Executive will not surrender the Philippines’s rights over the WPS, stressing that the arbitral ruling is “final, binding and unappealable.”

“The President will not allow nor sit idly in silence respecting any action by the international community in derogation thereof. He is fiercely protective of the country’s sovereignty,” he said.

“What he meant when he said that he will first set aside the ruling is that he would first focus on exploring the possibility of getting something from the area that would benefit the Filipino people pending the continuing diplomatic and peaceful negotiation of our territorial dispute with China,” he added.

It would be “folly and naïveté” if the Duterte administration will ignore areas where the Philippines should boost its “rapidly expanding growth,” Panelo further stressed.

The spokesman also said the vice president, like “the usual detractors and critics” of Duterte, may have been “carried away by their nitpicking and habitual engagement in useless and unproductive semantics.”

Borrowing Robredo’s words, he said it is the vice president’s “evolving penchant of finding fault” in every remark of the President that is actually “profoundly disappointing and extremely irresponsible.”

Panelo, who is also Duterte’s chief legal counsel, even advised Robredo to change her political advisers with “some erudite intellectuals knowledgeable in geopolitics and in the art of diplomacy,” as they cannot comprehend the complexities of the current situation with China.

Earlier, former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said the Philippines and China can have a joint exploration without having to set aside the arbitral ruling. He said Duterte would remain faithful both to the Constitution and the arbitral ruling if the two countries would do it through a service contract arrangement.

“In this way, the President will also not turn back on his promise to the Filipino people made during his October 16, 2016 departure speech, as he embarked on State visits to Brunei Darussalam and China, that he cannot be the ‘sole authorized agent’ to share with the Chinese, our EEZ (exclusive economic zone) which belongs exclusively to the Filipino people,” Del Rosario had said.

But Panelo slammed him on Thursday for his comments and told Del Rosario to “look at himself in the mirror and admit that he is the one responsible” for the loss of the country’s possession of Scarborough Shoal.