Research group IBON said that Pres.\nDuterte\u2019s stance on the West Philippine Sea (WPS) issue, as expressed in his\nfourth State of the Nation Address (SONA), is not about avoiding war with\nChina, but is about avoiding offending the Chinese government and losing all\nits promised funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last July 22, Pres. Duterte highlighted the\npossibility of China attacking the country if the government took a strong\nstance on its claims in the disputed WPS. According to the president, \u201cmore and\nbetter results can be reached in the privacy of a conference room than in a\nsquabble in public\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IBON, however, said that the administration\nis only using the possibility of war to conceal the agreements reached \u201cin the\nprivacy of a conference room\u201d between the Philippine and Chinese governments\nwhich seem to be at the expense of the Filipino people\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IBON noted that while other claimants to\nthe disputed area, like Vietnam and Indonesia, are taking a more aggressive\nstance to defend their claims, China has yet to declare war against these two\ncountries. The group said that the administration should see this as an\nopportunity to foster unity between the Philippines and its other neighbors to\ndefend their respective claims against China. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the government is not doing this, nor\nis it asserting the July 2016 ruling of the international tribunal, the\nPermanent Court of Arbitration, that was in favor of the Philippines. The\ndecision upheld the country\u2019s rights\nover the 200-nautical miles exclusive economic zone (EEZ) under the United\nNations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nPresident instead has claimed to be proud of his friendship with China, IBON\nsaid. Rather than defend his fellowmen, he has insulted Filipino fishermen by implying\nthat they should be thankful that Chinese Pres. Xi Jin Ping allowed them to\nfish in the WPS. He also reduced the ramming and sinking of the Filipino\nfishing boat Gem-Ver 1 by a Chinese ship in June to \u201ca mere incident\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IBON said that the reason for the Duterte administration\nbeing overly accommodating is most likely due to its desire for Chinese financing. IBON estimates that the government is seeking as much as Php673.2\nbillion from China for its 75 flagship projects aside from Php204.7 billion\nmore for infrastructure and other projects \u2013 for a total of Php877.9 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According\nto the group, the terms of the loan agreements that the administration enters\ninto with China for its infrastructure drive are onerous. These include only\nusing China\u2019s goods and services, including for payment of Chinese contractors\nand even hiring of Chinese workers; stringent loan payment schedules; contracts\nbeing explicitly governed and construed in accordance with the laws of China\nand disputes having to be settled in the courts of China; and the Philippines waiving\nits sovereign rights over its patrimonial assets in connection with any arbitration\nproceeding. The last is synonymous with the collateralization of the country\u2019s assets, like natural and\nstrategic resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IBON\nsaid that instead of being concerned with stepping on China\u2019s toes and losing\nfinancing, the Duterte administration should implement a truly independent\nforeign policy. Such a policy should defend and uphold Philippine sovereignty, ensure domestic development, and prioritize the\nwelfare of all Filipinos, said the group. ###<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Research group IBON said that Pres. Duterte\u2019s stance on the West Philippine Sea (WPS) issue, as expressed in his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA), is not about avoiding war with China, but is about avoiding offending the Chinese government and losing all its promised funds. Last July 22, Pres. Duterte highlighted the possibility […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7296,"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":[1682,347,484,96,116,2047],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8452"}],"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=8452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8453,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8452\/revisions\/8453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}