{"id":220542,"date":"2019-06-26T23:25:24","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T03:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=220542"},"modified":"2019-06-26T23:25:24","modified_gmt":"2019-06-27T03:25:24","slug":"speculative-to-say-chinese-were-fishing-within-ph-eez-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/06\/26\/speculative-to-say-chinese-were-fishing-within-ph-eez-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Speculative\u2019 to say Chinese were fishing within PH EEZ: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"

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FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte discusses the pressing concerns of the country during a dialogue with Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo at the Malaca\u00f1an Palace on September 11, 2018. ROBINSON NI\u00d1AL JR.\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— It is \u201cspeculative\u201d to assume that Chinese nationals were fishing within the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) when it allegedly rammed and abandoned a Filipino fishing boat at the Recto Bank (Reed Bank) in the West Philippine Sea, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo clarified an earlier statement he made saying Philippines is not granting access to Chinese nationals to fish within EEZ but was \u201ctolerating\u201d it in the spirit of their close friendship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact is – we do not know if Chinese nationals were fishing there at the time of the maritime incident,\u201d Panelo said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is purely speculative at this stage. Even during the allision, facts remain unclear if the Chinese vessel was fishing or only exercising their right of innocent passage,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo stressed that it was “prudent\u201d to wait for the results of the formal investigation conducted by both Philippine and Chinese authorities.<\/p>\n

He also clarified Duterte\u2019s statement that it is part of the agreement between the Philippines and China that Filipino fishermen are allowed to fish in the disputed waters in which they both claim ownership of.<\/p>\n

The Presidential Spokesperson said he asked Duterte about his statement on Wednesday evening and that he confirmed that indeed that was what he meant.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Duterte) explained that his first visit to China resulted into a modus vivendi where China which claims ownership of Reed Bank, by virtue of historical right, would allow our fishermen to catch fish there, a place declared to be within our EEZ,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

According to Panelo, Duterte also said that China would not permit their nationals from fishing within Philippine EEZ.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears that what the President meant was China would not allow their nationals from fishing in our EEZ since they treat us as their friends, knowing that permitting their fishermen to fish in our EEZ would only result in an unwanted hostility leading to an armed confrontation,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Panelo described as \u201cunfortunate\u201d the confusion made by some media outlets that Duterte was allowing Chinese fishermen in Philippine-owned territories.<\/p>\n

He, meanwhile, reiterated that the Philippine government will continue to assert sovereign rights over its EEZ.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stress assertively that the President will not relinquish, as he is not relinquishing or waiving our sovereign rights over our country\u2019s EEZ in the West Philippine Sea,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Filipinos can rest assured that the President\u2019s actions are all in accord with his Constitutional mandate to serve and protect the Filipino people,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo noted that avoiding \u201creckless undertakings\u201d in the disputed area and \u201cmaintaining peace and accord among all nations: are only two of the \u201ccarefully studied moves of the President.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe settlement of bilateral conflicts, and for that matter multinational disputes, can be best resolved through well-tested diplomatic negotiations rather than saber-rattling diplomacy as espoused by inveterate manic nationalists and other war freak partisans,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

In order to advance Philippine sovereign rights over its EEZ, Panelo said that Duterte has already publicly urged China to join in the finalization of a Code of Conduct in the contested waters, most recently during the recently-concluded 34th Asean Summit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the ASEAN Summit, he articulated on the dangers of China’s vague demarcation line claim even as we filed diplomatic protests against its activities in our EEZ through the Department of Foreign Affairs,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  MANILA\u00a0— It is \u201cspeculative\u201d to assume that Chinese nationals were fishing within the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) when …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":181098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220542","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\/220542","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=220542"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220545,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220542\/revisions\/220545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}