{"id":220611,"date":"2019-06-27T18:23:05","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T22:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=220611"},"modified":"2019-06-27T18:23:05","modified_gmt":"2019-06-27T22:23:05","slug":"lacson-backs-prrds-call-on-western-allies-to-help-ph-vs-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/06\/27\/lacson-backs-prrds-call-on-western-allies-to-help-ph-vs-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Lacson backs PRRD’s call on Western allies to help PH vs. China"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lacson also said it is a good development that the President has corrected himself by saying he cannot prevent incursions of foreign fishing vessels within the country\u2019s exclusive economic zone. (File photo<\/a>: Senator Ping Lacson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Senator Panfilo Lacson on Thursday backed President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s call for the United States and other Western countries to help the Philippines make a stand against China and claim its territories in the disputed South China Sea.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Lacson said Duterte\u2019s call on western allies to help check on China in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) is \u201cproper\u201d given the prevailing circumstances, contrary to critics\u2019 claims that such move is a \u201csure formula\u201d for war.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaintaining the balance of power in the WPS will prevent rather than ignite a war. Why? No two superpowers would go to war in this day and age of nuclear technology for the simple reason of its \u2018zero-sum\u2019 outcome,\u201d Lacson said.<\/p>\n

Duterte challenged the United States, Great Britain, and France to \u201cassemble\u201d and help the country assert its claim over the WPS after clearly being frustrated by criticism that he has failed to confront China over its aggression in the contested waters.<\/p>\n

Lacson also said it is a good development that the President has corrected himself by saying he cannot prevent incursions of foreign fishing vessels within the country\u2019s exclusive economic zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause even if he wants to, we don\u2019t have the capability nor the capacity to do it, not to mention that the arbitral ruling is unenforceable in the first place; and that the Philippines merely exercises sovereign right, not sovereignty over the areas within the EEZ,\u201d Lacson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree with the President in this regard. Having said that, to allow is not the same as not being able to prevent,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte has reiterated that he has no way of stopping China from fishing within the EEZ because the latter has insisted its claims on the area despite the arbitral ruling in favor of the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot drive them away because they have insisted\u00a0na kanila<\/em>\u00a0(that is theirs).\u00a0Tayo, idinemanda natin ang<\/em>\u00a0China\u00a0panahon ni<\/em>\u00a0Aquino, which was right.\u00a0Nanalo tayo, sabi ng<\/em>\u00a0arbitral court,\u00a0\u2018sa Pilipinas \u2018yan\u2019<\/em>\u00a0(We filed a case against China during the time of Aquino, which was right. We won and the arbitral court ruled \u2018that belongs to the Philippines’),” Duterte said.<\/p>\n

Despite the arbitral ruling, Duterte said the Philippines was not given sovereignty and that no country in the world has sovereignty over their EEZ.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi ibinigay sa atin \u2018yung<\/em>\u00a0(We were not given) sovereignty. Our sovereignty is only 12 miles. Ang (The) economic zone, wala tayong<\/em>\u00a0(we don\u2019t have) sovereignty. No country in the world has sovereignty\u00a0sa kanyang<\/em>\u00a0(within its) economic zone — exclusive. It is not a question of sovereignty,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Senator Panfilo Lacson on Thursday backed President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s call for the United States and other Western countries to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":213525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-filane-mikee-cervantes","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220611","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=220611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220612,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220611\/revisions\/220612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}