{"id":222985,"date":"2019-07-15T20:11:55","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T00:11:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=222985"},"modified":"2019-07-15T20:31:29","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T00:31:29","slug":"diplomatic-talks-still-best-option-to-resolve-wps-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/15\/diplomatic-talks-still-best-option-to-resolve-wps-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"Diplomatic talks still \u2018best\u2019 option to resolve WPS dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this reaction to several non-war options proposed by Supreme Court (SC) Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio to enforce the 2016 arbitral ruling that nullified China\u2019s nine-dash line map that nearly covers the entire WPS or South China Sea. (File Photo<\/a>: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Monday said President Rodrigo Duterte has considered all non-war options to resolve the West Philippine Sea (WPS) dispute and the \u201cbest\u201d option is still through diplomatic negotiations.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this reaction to several non-war options proposed by Supreme Court (SC) Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio to enforce the 2016 arbitral ruling that nullified China\u2019s nine-dash line map that nearly covers the entire WPS or South China Sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasta sa ngayon, ang Presidente, ang option niya ay iyong pinakamahusay<\/em>\u00a0(For now, the President, his option is the best option) and that is negotiation, diplomatic negotiations,\u201d Panelo said in a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng Presidente, pinag-aralan na lahat iyan. At pinili niya ang pinakamatalino, pinaka-hindi mapanganib na solusyon<\/em>\u00a0(The President studied all the options. And he chose the smartest, least dangerous solution),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

According to Panelo, Duterte, a lawyer, has been studying these options even before he was elected as President.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi pa siya Presidente, napag-aralan niya na iyan. Dahil alam mo, kapag tatakbo kang presidente, dapat alam mo na lahat ng gagawin mo<\/em>(Even before he was President, he already studied all options. Because when you run as President, you should already know everything you should do),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

He maintained that bilateral negotiations are meant to ensure the safety of the Filipinos.<\/p>\n

\u201cWala nang ibang gaganda roon kasi ang kausap mo roon ay mismo iyong<\/em>\u00a0supposed to be\u00a0na kaaway mo<\/em>\u00a0(There\u2019s no better option because this way you\u2019re already talking to your supposed enemy),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Among Carpio\u2019s suggestions to enforce the arbitral ruling is for the Philippines to encourage the Freedom of Navigation and Overflight Operations of the U.S., U.K., France, Australia, Japan, Indian, and Canada in the South China Sea, including the West Philippine Sea; and send on patrol its 10 new 44-meter multi-role response vessels donated by Japan for the use of the Philippine Coast Guard.<\/p>\n

Panelo, however, said the government has and continues to consider these as options.<\/p>\n

\u201cEh dati naman nating ginagawa iyon eh, dati nga tayong umiikot doon, di ba may mga<\/em>\u00a0Coast Guard\u00a0nga tayo eh. Pero<\/em>\u00a0still the best,\u00a0iyong<\/em>negotiation\u00a0pa rin, iyon pa rin ang<\/em>\u00a0number one.\u00a0Mag-uusap tayo<\/em>\u00a0(We have done that before, we have always had patrols there, we have a Coast Guard there. But the best is through negotiations, it\u2019s still number one),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, he encouraged critics who insisted on other options to enforce the arbitral ruling to run during the next elections to be able to do what they want.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung ipagpipilitan ng mga kritiko iyong kanilang gusto, eh siguro sa susunod na halalan tumakbo silang presidente para kapag sila na ang naging presidente lahat ng gusto nila ay puwede na nilang gawin<\/em>\u00a0(If critics want to force us into doing what they want, perhaps they should join the next elections and run for President so that they can do whatever they want),\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

Carpio\u2019s other suggestions to enforce the Permanent Court of Arbitration\u2019s verdict are:<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Philippines may enter into a Convention with Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia declaring that no geologic feature in the Spratly\u2019s generates an Exclusive Economic Zone and there are only territorial seas from geologic features that are above water at high-tide,
\n\u2022 The Philippines may file an extended continental shelf claim in the West Philippine Sea beyond the 200-nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone off the coast of Luzon, where China is the only opposite coastal state,
\n\u2022 The Philippines may send its own Navy to join the Freedom of Navigation and Overflight Operations to assert that there is an EEZ in the WPS,
\n\u2022 The Philippines may support private sector initiatives to enforce the arbitral award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Monday said President Rodrigo Duterte has considered all non-war options to resolve the West Philippine Sea (WPS) …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":186250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222985","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\/222985","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=222985"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222992,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222985\/revisions\/222992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}