House leader brings up WPS incident in int’l forum
Speaker Martin Romualdez called on an international gathering of parliamentarians to put up a “united front” against what he called the “creeping erosion of maritime law and order,” in reference to the latest harassment of a Philippine vessel by the China Coast Guard (CCG) in the West Philippine Sea.
Speaking at the 29th Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum (PI-SF) in Madrid, Spain, on May 22, Romualdez condemned the incident and stressed that the country “will not allow foreign narratives to distort the truth on the ground, nor will we permit coercive actions to dictate our national destiny.”
Not just regional issue
The House leader delivered the speech on the same day Philippine officials reported that a CCG ship had used its water cannon on and sideswiped a vessel of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in the waters near Pag-Asa Island.
The incident happened on the morning of May 21 and marked the first time the CCG used a water cannon on a BFAR craft. Similar attacks in the past were mostly aimed at vessels of the Philippine Coast Guard.
Romualdez stressed that these acts of harassment were “not isolated incidents’’ and that “this is not just a regional issue.”
“It is a global test of whether the rule of law will prevail over brute force,” he said.
Romualdez asked the countries represented in the Madrid forum to remain “vigilant and united against gray-zone tactics, cyber-enabled propaganda, and the creeping erosion of maritime law and order.”
‘Unity among democracies’
“We serve not only as lawmakers but as standard-bearers of the democratic rule of law,” he said, adding:
“In an age when misinformation, cyberattacks, and technological disruption threaten the very fabric of our societies, the need for vigilance and unity among democracies has never been greater.”
Hosted by the Spanish Senate and chaired by former US Rep. Robert Pittenger, the 29th PI-SF gathered parliamentarians from more than 40 nations, with the aim of aligning their strategies to counter global threats.
