{"id":261548,"date":"2020-07-14T07:48:09","date_gmt":"2020-07-14T11:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=261548"},"modified":"2020-07-14T07:48:09","modified_gmt":"2020-07-14T11:48:09","slug":"ph-to-keep-friendly-ties-with-china-sans-ignoring-arbitral-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/07\/14\/ph-to-keep-friendly-ties-with-china-sans-ignoring-arbitral-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"PH to keep friendly ties with China sans ignoring arbitral ruling"},"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\u2013 The Philippines will maintain its \u201cfriendly\u201d ties with China even after Beijing once again rejected Manila\u2019s call to recognize the Hague-based arbitral court\u2019s 2016 decision on South China Sea disputes, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

For now, President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s administration would not force China to acknowledge the arbitral ruling to boost the trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a virtual presser aired on state-run PTV-4.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsasantabi muna po natin \u2018yung mga bagay na hindi mapagkasunduan, kasama na po itong<\/em>\u00a0territorial dispute\u00a0na ito<\/em>\u00a0(We will temporarily set aside everything that [the Philippines and China] are in disagreement, including our territorial dispute),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

He, however, clarified that the latest plan was not meant to abandon the Philippines\u2019 historic South China Sea arbitration victory against China.<\/p>\n

\u201cHinding-hindi po natin gagawin iyan<\/em>\u00a0(We will never do that) because the ruling was to our favor,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

He made the remark after Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Sunday called on China to adhere to the sea ruling, saying the arbitration award in favor of the Philippines is \u201cnon-negotiable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Locsin\u2019s call came on the same day the Philippines marked the fourth anniversary of its historic win against China\u2019s sweeping claims to most features of the resource-rich South China Sea.<\/p>\n

On July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands ruled in favor of the Philippines\u2019 petition when the court affirmed that China has no legal basis to assert its supposedly historic rights over nearly the entire South China Sea.<\/p>\n

China rejected Locsin\u2019s call on Monday, saying the decision favoring the Philippines is \u201cillegal and invalid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Consistent\u2019 in position<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roque said Beijing\u2019s latest move would not be a reason to affect its improved ties with Manila under Duterte\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cItong<\/em>\u00a0disagreement\u00a0nating ito ay hindi dahilan at hindi naman po ito ang suma<\/em>\u00a0total\u00a0ng ating relasyon sa Tsina<\/em>\u00a0(This disagreement is no reason to sever ties with China. It is not the sum total of our relationship with China),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque also acknowledged that China, like the Philippines, is merely being \u201cconsistent\u201d in its position with regards to the long-standing disputes in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they are emboldened. They have been consistent in their position and so have we been. \u2018Yun lang po \u2018yun<\/em>\u00a0(That\u2019s just it),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Advancing national interest<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Monday, United States (US) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected most of China\u2019s maritime claims in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

Pompeo made the remarks as he stressed that the US\u2019 stance is aligned with the 2016 arbitral ruling that sided with the Philippines against China\u2019s extensive claims in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

Roque assured that the Philippines, while keeping its mended ties with China, would continue to defend its national interests in the hotly contested waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be sure that we will advance our national interest. And meanwhile, we want all parties involved to abide with the rule of law, particularly with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Apart from the Philippines and China, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam are also laying claim to parts of the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

Roque said the Philippines is looking forward to the conclusion of a final and binding Code of Conduct in the South China Sea to promote peace and stability in the busy waterway.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng importante po ngayon, atupagin natin ‘yung pagbubuo at pagtutupad ng<\/em>\u00a0Code of Conduct\u00a0nang maiwasan po yung<\/em>\u00a0tension\u00a0sa lugar na iyan<\/em>\u00a0(What\u2019s important now is to finalize the crafting and implementation of the Code of Conduct to avoid tensions in the disputed waters),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The Philippines will maintain its \u201cfriendly\u201d ties with China even after Beijing once again rejected Manila\u2019s call to recognize …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":211403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-261548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261548","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=261548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":261549,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261548\/revisions\/261549"}],"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=261548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}