Research group IBON\nsaid that the Duterte administration\u2019s downplaying of the hit-and-run by a\nChinese vessel of a Philippine fishing boat in the West Philippine Sea (WPS)\nshows how it gives more importance to Chinese funding over Philippine\nsovereignty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On June 9, a Chinese\nvessel rammed and sank the Filipino fishing boat F\/B Gem-Ver and left the 22\nfishermen on board adrift at sea. President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s first comment on\nthe issue over a week after it happened, on June 17, was to dismiss it as a simple\n\u201cmaritime incident\u201d being played up by \u201cstupid politicians\u201d. The president echoed the Chinese foreign\nministry\u2019s statement a few days earlier calling the boat sinking \u201can ordinary\nmaritime traffic accident\u201d and warning against \u201cirresponsibly politicizing\u201d the\ncollision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
IBON explained that\nthe Duterte administration\u2019s position is most likely influenced by how it is\ncourting billions in dollars in aid, debt and investments from China. The\ngovernment is reportedly seeking as much as US$14.3 billion in official development\nassistance (ODA) from China to finance 29 \u2018Build, Build, Build\u2019 infrastructure projects\ncosting US$16.8 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China ODA has already increased\nby 24,200% under the Duterte administration \u2013 from US$1.5 million in 2016 to\nUS$364.9 million in 2018, said the group. China ODA is seen as essential to fund\nflagship infrastructure projects. Loan agreements with China have already\nbecome controversial for having terms disadvantageous for the Philippines and compromising\nits sovereignty. The most expensive infrastructure project to be funded by\nChina is the Philippine National Railway (PNR) South Long Haul Project worth\nUS$3.3 billion. China is also being targeted to fund the Mindanao Railway Project\nPhase 1 worth US$677 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
IBON also noted surging\nforeign direct investments (FDI) from China. China FDI increased from US$0.4\nmillion in 2016 to US$163.4 million in 2018. Moreover, the Duterte administration\nalso managed to get pledges from Chinese companies of around US$12.1 billion\nduring the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation last April\n2019. Prime Minister Xi Jinping also pledged US$148 million in grants to help\nboost the Philippine economy during the forum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Duterte\nadministration is not asserting the country\u2019s sovereignty or upholding the\nrights of the Filipino fishermen for fear of jeopardizing the China aid and investments\nit is so eager for, said IBON. It is desperate to stimulate the Philippine\neconomy amidst its sluggish performance. Growth of gross domestic product (GDP)\nfell to 5.6% in the first quarter of 2019 from 6.5% in the same period last\nyear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
IBON also warned that\nChina has already been implicated in controversial deals gone bad where\ngovernments were pressured to give up strategic assets like ports. China-funded\nprojects around the world have also been hounded by allegations of hundreds of millions\nof dollars in corruption and overpricing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
IBON said that a truly\nindependent foreign policy includes asserting the country\u2019s sovereignty and\nupholding domestic economic development including the welfare of all Filipinos.\nThe Duterte administration should stop privileging China in Philippine\nterritory just because it is promising so much financing, the group said. ###<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Research group IBON said that the Duterte administration\u2019s downplaying of the hit-and-run by a Chinese vessel of a Philippine fishing boat in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) shows how it gives more importance to Chinese funding over Philippine sovereignty. On June 9, a Chinese vessel rammed and sank the Filipino fishing boat F\/B Gem-Ver and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[2048,14],"tags":[1041,1722,1685,1682,347,116,1707,2047],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8253"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8255,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8253\/revisions\/8255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}