{"id":223472,"date":"2019-07-18T21:38:16","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T01:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=223472"},"modified":"2019-07-18T21:38:16","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T01:38:16","slug":"prrd-remarks-on-mdt-with-us-is-challenge-to-critics-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/18\/prrd-remarks-on-mdt-with-us-is-challenge-to-critics-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD remarks on MDT with US is challenge to critics: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte at the Malaca\u00f1an Palace on July 11, 2019. ALBERT ALCAIN\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s remark that he would invoke the Philippines\u2019 mutual defense treaty (MDT) with the United States was a challenge to his critics and detractors to go with him in the event of armed attack in the disputed West Philippine Sea (WPS), Malaca\u00f1ang said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

In a Palace media briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the same remark by the President was just another \u2018sarcasm\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cStill the same. Because he (Duterte) knows that you cannot invoke that treaty without any armed assault or attack against any of the parties in that treaty,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe kept on saying that by way of putting into absurdity the criticism by the critics and detractors — and challenging them that in the event of any armed attack and the treaty will be operational, then these critics and detractors which the President has named should go with him in defending the West Philippine Sea,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In a TV interview on Pastor Quiboloy\u2019s show early Wednesday (July 17) morning, Duterte said he would invoke the MDT and would ask Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and other critics who pushed him to aggressively enforce the arbitral ruling which nullifies China\u2019s claims in the disputed waters to accompany him in the event of an armed attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m calling now. Now, I’m calling now America. I am invoking the RP-US pact, and I would like America to gather all their Seventh Fleet in front of China. I’m asking them now and I will join them, and I will ride on the boat where the admiral of the US,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I will drag along this Carpio and the rest of the — Albert,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo said despite several other non-war options to resolve the sea row against China, the \u201cbest\u201d option is still through diplomatic negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe very effective method of getting whatever benefits we can achieve from the arbitral ruling could be gotten in the diplomatic negotiations,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

On July 15, the US reaffirmed that any armed attack against the Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the South China Sea will trigger Article IV of the 1951 MDT.<\/p>\n

Although the US did not discuss calls for a review on the defense pact, the Philippines vowed to strengthen cooperation between the two countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s remark that he would invoke the Philippines\u2019 mutual defense treaty (MDT) with the United States was …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":222532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223472","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\/223472","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=223472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223473,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223472\/revisions\/223473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}