{"id":267626,"date":"2020-09-03T23:51:50","date_gmt":"2020-09-04T03:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=267626"},"modified":"2020-09-03T23:51:50","modified_gmt":"2020-09-04T03:51:50","slug":"prrd-locsin-agree-to-push-projects-backed-by-china-firms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/09\/03\/prrd-locsin-agree-to-push-projects-backed-by-china-firms\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD, Locsin agree to push projects backed by China firms"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Although Locsin initially recommended terminating deals with Chinese firms involved in reclamation activities in the South China Sea, Roque said Locsin eventually concurred with Duterte because the President spoke as the \u201cchief architect of foreign policy.\u201d (PNA file photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro \u201cTeddyboy\u201d Locsin Jr. has agreed with the decision of President Rodrigo R. Duterte to push ahead with infrastructure projects backed by Chinese firms that have been blacklisted by the United States, Malaca\u00f1ang said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Although Locsin initially recommended terminating deals with Chinese firms involved in reclamation activities in the South China Sea, Roque said Locsin eventually concurred with Duterte because the President spoke as the \u201cchief architect of foreign policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roque said he saw \u201cno inconsistency\u201d between the standpoints of Locsin and the President.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the President spoke,\u00a0sumang-ayon naman po ang ating<\/em>\u00a0Secretary of Foreign Affairs. So\u00a0sa tingin ko po, wala naman pong<\/em>\u00a0contradiction (our Secretary of Foreign Affairs agreed. So I think there\u2019s no contradiction),\u201d he said in a virtual Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

Roque said Locsin agreed that even if Chinese firms were allowed to continue operating in the country, the government would still continue filing diplomatic protests against China for their continued militarization of the disputed sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u00a0ang nabasa ko po sa peryodiko kanina, sinabi niya na tama naman po ang posisyon ng ating Presidente kasi kapag kinansela natin ang mga kontratang iyan ay madidemanda na naman tayo sa isang<\/em>\u00a0international forum. So\u00a0nagsasang-ayon naman po ang ating<\/em>\u00a0Secretary of Foreign Affairs (Well, I read from the newspaper, he [Locsin] said our President\u2019s stance is correct because if we cancel the contract, we will be charged again in an international forum. So, our Secretary of Foreign Affairs agreed),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Roque said he had no knowledge as to whether the President ever chided Locsin for making public statements against his stance but suggested that Duterte did not really mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no information\u00a0po kasi ang Presidente naman ay walang personalan po iyan<\/em>\u00a0(because the President doesn\u2019t take it personally),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Roque said he did not see the Philippines copying the US decision to blacklist Chinese firms to show that it does not condone Beijing’s construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

Washington imposed sanctions against China\u2019s state-owned enterprises and visa restrictions on individuals behind the dredging and militarization of the disputed features in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

Roque said the government is already \u201csatisfied\u201d by raising the Hague-based arbitral court\u2019s 2016 decision, which invalidates China\u2019s vast claims on the contested territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is already a decision there that the Philippines has sovereign rights where they build the artificial islands and that means that whoever built those artificial islands had no legal basis to do so and we\u2019re satisfied with that decision,\u201d he said in an interview over CNN Philippines\u2019 The Source.<\/p>\n

He assured that the government is not abandoning the Philippines\u2019 historic arbitration victory against China.<\/p>\n

Duterte\u2019s priority is to pursue national interest, which includes completing all projects under its \u201cBuild, Build, Build\u201d infrastructure program, Roque said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro \u201cTeddyboy\u201d Locsin Jr. has agreed with the decision of President Rodrigo R. Duterte to push …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":267627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267626","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\/267626","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=267626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267628,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267626\/revisions\/267628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}