{"id":222157,"date":"2019-07-09T01:28:12","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T05:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=222157"},"modified":"2019-07-09T01:28:12","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T05:28:12","slug":"prrd-may-educate-public-on-deal-with-xi-in-sona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/09\/prrd-may-educate-public-on-deal-with-xi-in-sona\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD may \u2018educate\u2019 public on deal with Xi in SONA"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and People’s Republic of China President Xi Jinping pose for posterity prior to the start of the bilateral meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on April 25, 2019. KING RODRIGUEZ\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said he may educate the public on the constitutionality of his fishing agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 22.<\/p>\n

The October 2016 agreement between Duterte and Xi allows the Chinese to fish within the Philippines\u2019 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ), for as long as China will allow Filipinos to fish in the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal.<\/p>\n

\u201cSabi nila na<\/em>\u00a0(They say it\u2019s) unconstitutional, well, you wait. Maybe\u00a0sa<\/em>\u00a0(during the) SONA, I will educate people\u00a0na ‘yung ginawa ko,<\/em>\u00a0sabi ko<\/em>\u00a0you can fish\u00a0ano… Tama talaga ako. At hindi maging<\/em>\u00a0unconstitutional\u00a0‘yan.<\/em>\u00a0(that what I did, allowing them to fish\u2026I\u2019m actually right. It\u2019s not unconstitutional),\u201d Duterte said in a chance interview with reporters after the oath-taking of new government appointees.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy any stretch of imagination,\u00a0hindi<\/em>\u00a0unconstitutional\u00a0‘yung ginawa ko<\/em>\u00a0(what I did is not unconstitutional). As a matter of fact, it was in keeping with the law,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte said Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio\u2019s remark saying he committed a constitutional infraction by allowing Chinese to fish within Philippine\u2019s EEZ has \u201cnot been studied.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKung sabihin mo<\/em>\u00a0(If you say) I committed a constitutional infraction because I allowed the Chinese fishermen to fish,\u00a0hindi nila pinag-aralan talaga<\/em>\u00a0(it really has not been studied),\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaya \u2018wag kayong maniwala niyang mga<\/em>\u00a0constitutionalist-constitutionalist.\u00a0Mga<\/em>\u00a0Carpio\u00a0diyan, susmaryosep<\/em>\u00a0(That\u2019s why don\u2019t believe in those constitutionalists. Those Carpios there),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte said insisting on driving the Chinese away from fishing within the Philippine\u2019s EEZ in the West Philippine Sea would be futile since the Asian superpower would not allow itself to be bullied.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go there and insist on driving them out? You would think China would — would allow itself to be bullied?\u00a0Kaya ang tanong ko sa inyo<\/em>(That\u2019s why my question to you) is who is in the possession of the property under the claim of the legitimate ownership?\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

He explained that despite the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruling, which recognizes Philippine sovereign rights over the EEZ, China will still insist on owning the majority of the disputed waters.<\/p>\n

Compare notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Duterte said he agreed with the findings of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) which categorized he June 9 Recto Bank (Reed) Bank incident as a \u201cvery serious marine casualty\u201d despite earlier describing it as \u201ca little maritime accident.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a serious ah\u2026 Pero when you talk about marine transportation and all, it is a maritime incident. And that is very small because nobody died,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

He, however, said that he was not inclined to push to make sure that the Chinese crew are held liable.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, we have our recommendations, we have our report. Then we will wait for China to make its report. Then we can compare notes,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then\u00a0kung sino \u2018yung<\/em>\u00a0within a better position to assert justice,\u00a0gawain nila \u2018yan. Kung sila, magbayad sila<\/em>\u00a0(Whoever is in a better position to assert justice, they should do it. If it\u2019s them, they should pay),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo earlier said the Palace will insist on the liability of the Chinese crew but at the same time, said that the marine incident should not be made into an \u201cinternational crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Palace official said that the only way for the Chinese crew to justify the abandonment of Filipino fishermen at sea is if their lives had been endangered. However, the Chinese Embassy has denied the abandonment claiming that the vessel was \u201cbesieged\u201d by several Filipino fishing boats.<\/p>\n

In its report, PCG-Marina concluded that the Chinese vessel failed to prevent the collision with a Filipino fishing boat anchored in the area and failed assist 22 Filipino fishermen who were abandoned at sea.<\/p>\n

Call to US<\/strong><\/p>\n

Duterte also reiterated his challenge to the United States to help the Philippines claim its territories.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung gusto talaga ng Amerika na paalisin ‘yung<\/em>\u00a0China,\u00a0hindi ko man kaya, maghingi ako ng tulong sa kanya<\/em>\u00a0(If America really wants to drive away China, since I can\u2019t do it, I will ask help from them). I want the whole fleet of the Seventh — the Seventh Fleet of the Armed Forces of the United States there,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

Duterte then spoke of inviting former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales to ride with him on his way to wage a war against China.<\/p>\n

Del Rosario and Carpio-Morales earlier filed a complaint before the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Chinese President Xi Jinping for alleged crimes against humanity in the disputed South China Sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cMagpasok sila sa<\/em>\u00a0China Sea,\u00a0magpasok ako<\/em>\u00a0(They can enter the China Sea, I will enter). I will ride\u00a0doon sa Amerikano na mauna doon sa ano<\/em>\u00a0(in America but they should go first). I will invite Carpio, del Rosario, Morales to ride with me,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen\u00a0sabihin ko sa<\/em>\u00a0Amerikano, \u2018Sige, pasabugin na natin lahat.\u2019 Tingnan… Wala. ‘Yan man ang gusto nila away talaga<\/em>\u00a0(Then I\u2019ll tell the Americans, \u2018Okay, bomb them all.\u2019 See. That\u2019s what they want, a war),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said he may educate the public on the constitutionality of his fishing agreement with …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":211403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,54365,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-instagram","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222157","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=222157"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222159,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222157\/revisions\/222159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}