At a press briefing, Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office head Ricky Carandang said that while there is no specific pressing issue, the discussion would be on the evolvement of the Philippine-China relations over the last few months.

 

“There’s defense... there’s political... there’s economic... there’s all kinds of factors now that are being thrown into the mix,” Carandang told Palace reporters.

 

He added the President had met with the different clusters of his Cabinet about the issues and he wants them to come together to discuss the issue in a broader context.

 

“Kung minsan ‘pag kausap mo lang ‘yung defense, iba ‘yung pananaw nila. O kung kausap mo lang ‘yung economic cluster, iba rin ‘yung pananaw nila. If they’re all together, then I think everybody is enlightened or their opinions are enriched by interacting with the other clusters,” he said.

The standoff between Manila and Beijing began in early April when Philippine forces spotted Chinese fishermen gathering marine species from the area. No arrests were made as Chinese vessels blocked Philippine ships from doing so.

US spy planes

 

At the same press briefing, Carandang clarified that there was no final decision yet on the deployment of United States spy planes over the West Philippine Sea (also called South China Sea), adding it is not meant to provoke China.

 

“It’s one of the options being considered to enable us to enhance our ability to monitor our territory. Now, he (President Benigno Aquino III) reiterated that there has been no decision (yet) and that the primary responsibility belongs to the Philippine government,” he said.

 

He said the government has the responsibility to monitor the country’s territory to make sure that there are no incursions for one reason or another, but admitted that “our capabilities are rather limited.”

 

“If they happen at all, there are surveillance flights, they are not meant to be provocative; they are merely meant to monitor our territory. There’s no offensive capability here. So this should not be viewed as a provocative statement,” he added.

 

Carandang noted that the Philippines has been “bending over in order to try to deescalate the situation” at the West Philippine Sea.

 

“That effort continues. But I think in order for us to be able to properly deescalate, we also have to be able to monitor what’s happening in our territory and so therefore if there’s an effort to enhance our ability to do that, we don’t believe that that is provocative,” he reiterated.

 

Asked under what treaty or agreement Aquino’s possible approval of the deployment of US spy planes will fall, Carandang believes there is no need for a treaty or agreement for it.

 

“We have commitments from the United States to help us enhance our defense and monitoring capabilities. So I don’t think simple flyovers---if they happen---would necessarily require any sort of special arrangement,” he said.

 

He further said civilian applications for taking aerial photos of the Panatag Shoal is no different from the possible deployment of US spy planes.

 

“I’m sure you’re all aware of Google earth. Nobody thinks that if Google earth lies over Luzon or Scarborough then that’s going to be a provocation. They are basically doing the same thing. So there’s no military component to this; if ever, we’re just taking shots of the terrain. So monitoring lang talaga ‘yan,” he said. — RSJ, GMA News