{"id":210131,"date":"2019-04-15T22:42:56","date_gmt":"2019-04-16T02:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=210131"},"modified":"2019-04-15T22:42:56","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T02:42:56","slug":"prrd-effectively-asserted-sovereignty-over-wps-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/04\/15\/prrd-effectively-asserted-sovereignty-over-wps-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD \u2018effectively\u2019 asserted sovereignty over WPS: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the 9th anniversary of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) and the 25th anniversary of the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) at the SMX Convention Center in Davao City on February 19, 2019. RENE LUMAWAG\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte has \u201ceffectively\u201d made a strong assertion of sovereignty on the country’s control over territories in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), Malaca\u00f1ang said Monday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this remark a day after insisting that the Duterte administration has never \u201cshelved\u201d the arbitral ruling won by the Philippines against China at The Hague.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he said \u2018do not touch our property and if you do any harm to our soldiers, we will respond in kind.\u2019 That effectively has already made a very strong assertion of sovereignty and statement relative to the arbitral ruling,\u201d Panelo said in a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

Panelo explained anew that the arbitral ruling was never shelved because it has always existed and could be invoked \u201canytime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean it has been shelved. If you say \u2018not right now,\u2019 it\u2019s still there. You can invoke at any time, at our pleasure and convenience,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Panelo, meanwhile, reiterated that the Philippines has already filed a “salvo of diplomatic notes” against China for the continued activity of Chinese vessels and is currently waiting for its response.<\/p>\n

He noted the importance of maintaining \u201cequilibrium\u201d between the Philippines and China amid the ongoing sea row.<\/p>\n

\u201cKasi dapat i-maintain natin iyong peace and equilibrium doon sa lugar na iyon (We should maintain peace and equilibrium in that area),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are supposed to be friends. So, let\u2019s be friendly first,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo said it will be up to the President to determine whether he would invoke the arbitral tribunal during his visit to China to attend the Belt and Road Forum on April 25.<\/p>\n

\u201cDepende sa kaniya iyon. Kasi either\/or, both puwede namang i-raise nila iyon eh. Considering na mainit, baka pag-usapan (It will depend on him. Because either the Philippines or China could raise it. Considering that it is a hot topic, it might be tackled),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

It will also be the President\u2019s call to decide on actions to take should China refuse to move away its vessels suspected to be maritime militia near the Pag-asa Island, he said.<\/p>\n

He also stressed the importance of forging \u201ca mutually satisfactory solution\u201d to the conflict in that area based on the directives of each constitution, as well as the aspirations of these two countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte has \u201ceffectively\u201d made a strong assertion of sovereignty on the country’s control over territories in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":202974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210131","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210134,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210131\/revisions\/210134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}