{"id":178251,"date":"2018-08-23T21:39:41","date_gmt":"2018-08-24T01:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=178251"},"modified":"2018-08-23T21:39:41","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T01:39:41","slug":"palace-concerned-possible-entry-nuclear-power-wps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/08\/23\/palace-concerned-possible-entry-nuclear-power-wps\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace concerned over possible entry of nuclear power in WPS"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
“We’re concerned about the entry of any and all nuclear weapons into the Philippine territory because our Constitution provides that we are a nuclear-free zone,\u201d Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said when asked for comment during a Palace press briefing. (PNA file Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Thursday expressed concern over Pentagon\u2019s report that China may bring nuclear power in the disputed West Philippine Sea.<\/p>\n

“We’re concerned about the entry of any and all nuclear weapons into the Philippine territory because our Constitution provides that we are a nuclear-free zone,\u201d Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said when asked for comment during a Palace press briefing.<\/p>\n

Roque said even an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) treaty declared that the whole ASEAN should be a nuclear-free zone.<\/p>\n

He said the nuclear-free policy should be observed by all countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are concerned about the possibility that any foreign power, be it America, Russia, China may bring nuclear warheads into our territory and into ASEAN which is declared as nuclear-free zone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque, however, said it is not for the Philippines to verify the \u201cUS observation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a US observation. We are not in a position to verify that. As you correctly said, it is even in the nature of speculation. It is a possibility, according to the American sources. So we leave it at that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

China has denied the US report which it called \u201ctotal disregard of facts, makes presumptuous and irresponsible comments on China\u2019s national defense development\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina stays committed to a peaceful development path and follows a national defense policy that is defensive in nature,\u201d China\u2019s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said in a press statement on August 18.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is always a builder of world peace, contributor to global development and defender of international order,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Chinese official said their national defense development aims to safeguard its national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, \u201cwhich is the lawful rights for a sovereign state to exercise\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Thursday expressed concern over Pentagon\u2019s report that China may bring nuclear power in the disputed West Philippine …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":108149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-jelly-musico","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}