PH to win battle for West PH Sea, says former envoy
PH to win battle for West PH Sea, says former envoy
Philippine Council for Foreign Relations Chairman, former ambassador Jaime S. Bautista says that the Code of Conduct is the path to peace and prosperity in the region. Countries all over the world want to uphold the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) and it is in the best interest of China to comply. The Philippines has the law on its side and the support of many countries. Read the article for the full story.
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Philippine Council for Foreign Relations Chairman, former ambassador Jaime S. Bautista says that the Code of Conduct is the path to peace and prosperity in the region. Countries all over the world want to uphold the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) and it is in the best interest of China to comply. The Philippines has the law on its side and the support of many countries. Read the article for the full story.
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Transcript
00:00 I'm Ezra Raya and this is the Manila Times.
00:03 Lawmakers are calling for a peaceful and diplomatic solution to the escalating
00:07 tensions in the West Philippine Sea. According to a statement by Senate Committee on National
00:13 Defense, Chinese ships continue to swarm at the country's Exclusive Economic Zones, or EEZs.
00:20 China has so far refused to respect international law and has sought to change the prevailing legal
00:27 norms by force. President Marcos has decided to create a new office and position focused solely
00:34 on handling the country's problems with China, with Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of
00:39 Staff Andres Centino being appointed as Presidential Advisor on the West Philippine Sea.
00:46 Joining us is Chairman of the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations and former Ambassador Jaime
00:54 S. Bautista. Welcome to the Manila Times, sir. Sir, with the international law by your side,
01:00 what are our chances in abating conflict with China? To have the trust of its trading partners.
01:08 So, we have to dialogue with China and hopefully China will prove to be a true friend
01:21 and will eventually enter into an agreement for the peaceful settlement of the issues. As I said,
01:33 it is in China's interest to dialogue and to achieve a win-win solution. And the win-win
01:44 solution is for China to accept the prevailing legal norms and not to attempt to change the
01:57 legal norms because this will only lead to instability, which is bad not only for the
02:07 Philippines and for the world, but especially for China. China needs peace and stability for
02:14 the success of many of its projects, including the One Belt, One Road initiative of China.
02:22 It's a question of time. We will see what happens because we will continue to dialogue.
02:30 And our first objective is for China to accept the arbitral award because it has now become part of
02:42 international law. Do you think the Philippines will still remain strong in upholding the code
02:48 of conduct and the arbitrary? Or is it smarter to just compromise with powerful countries such as
02:59 China? We do not intend to confront China militarily. We are confronting China with reason.
03:09 But we believe, well I believe, that China will not, it is not in the interest of China to wage
03:20 war, especially because the scenario now has changed. We are all aware now that we have the
03:31 support of the United States, not only of the United States but of many of the countries in
03:40 the European Union who wish to uphold the provisions of UNCLOS. And they wish to protect
03:50 the rights of freedom of navigation and overflight because it is in their interest and in the
04:01 interest of China itself and of the world to protect free trade. So it's not an intention.
04:09 We do not have the intention of confronting China militarily. But we have begun to modernize our
04:23 armed forces and we have our friends and our allies to support us in different forums. Because
04:34 in these forums we will be needing the support eventually of other countries who share our
04:45 interest. And now that there has been a rapprochement between the Philippines and the
04:54 United States, you know, we can now rely on the Mutual Defense Pact in case we are attacked. But
05:03 I wish to stress that the Mutual Defense Treaty is precisely that. It is for defense. It is not
05:12 intended to confront any country. Not intended to confront China.
05:19 Sir, so you mentioned earlier that we should have a dialogue with China to finally resolve
05:26 this issue at the West Philippine Sea. But some lawmakers would say that they want to get behind
05:36 in elevating this to the United Nations or even the International Criminal Court. So which is the
05:43 best way to go? So should we resolve this with China, with just the two countries, or should we
05:48 involve the International Court? We are in dialogue with China. And it's not only the Philippines,
05:59 but it's ASEAN as well. Because as you know, the code of conduct in the South China Sea is not only
06:10 the Philippines with China, but ASEAN with China. So we will be supported by ASEAN in this way,
06:23 because all of the countries in our region want peace and stability. So that is our message to
06:34 China. The code of conduct is the path to peace and prosperity. We will wait for China to be
06:46 enlightened. And hopefully this will happen. You would like to reiterate that China must honor
06:58 the international law and surrender its claim to the Philippines. It's not the question of China
07:06 surrendering because they never had any rights. It's a question of recognizing our rights.
07:16 China has never had any rights at all. In the first place, our exclusive economic zone and
07:25 our continental shelf. We'll keep on working and we'll continue the dialogue with China. And well,
07:38 we will also continue our efforts to get support from ASEAN and from other forums
07:45 in order to attain our objective. Thank you so much, Chairman of Philippine Council for
07:52 Foreign Relations and former Ambassador Jaime S. Bautista. Maraming salamat po, sir.
07:57 Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Isra.
08:00 Thank you.