Estrada tells China foreign minister: ‘Our sovereignty is not a performance and our resolve is not an act’
On Monday, Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada denounced the recent comments made by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that the incidents in the South China Sea were “mere theater” that had been staged by other nations.
“The statements made by the Chinese foreign minister are yet another blatant attempt to undermine our country’s legitimate concerns and distract the public from their persistent illegal incursions and provocations,” Estrada said in a statement.
He also called on the international community to denounce what he labeled as “baseless assertion” and support the Philippines in defending regional peace, stability and the rule of law.
“Our sovereignty is not a performance and our resolve is not an act,” the Senate leader said.
“No amount of squid tactics can conceal the fact that China has been, and continues to be, engaged in a pattern of illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive behavior at sea –and, most recently, even in the airspace of the Philippines,” he added.
Estrada was referring to a Chinese military helicopter that came as close as three meters above the Philippine fisheries bureau plane, which was conducting a maritime patrol over Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) last month.
It was the closest a Chinese chopper had been to a Philippine aircraft in the WPS, or the waters within Manila’s 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone, said Commodore Jay Tarriela, the Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson on the WPS.
“We cannot turn a blind eye on China’s escalating coercive tactics against our maritime scientists and personnel, as well as their illegal presence in our territorial waters,” said Estrada.
“They have repeatedly violated, and continue to violate, international and domestic laws, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 2016 Arbitral Award,” he added.
Read: China’s wordplay won’t mask West PH Sea issue – DFA
