Filtered By: Topstories
News

Get your facts straight on Scarborough Shoal, Palace tells Duterte 


A Palace official on Thursday said incoming president Rodrigo Duterte should get his facts straight on the Scarborough Shoal, which he claims the Philippines has lost to China after a tense standoff in 2012.

“It's the prerogative of the incoming president to seek and obtain complete and accurate information on matters of national interest, especially on foreign policy,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma, Jr. said in a text message to reporters.

Coloma was reacting to the statement of Duterte that he intends to ask the Aquino administration and Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, a close ally of President Benigno Aquino III, how China was able to take control of Scarborough Shoal.

"Maybe when I sit as President, I am not going to prosecute. I am not up for it actually--going after political enemies. But I would be interested to know why we lost the Scarborough Shoal," Duterte said, referring to Trillanes and his backchannel negotiations with China, which had the blessing of Aquino.

Trillanes had insisted that the Philippines has not lost the disputed shoal, locally referred to as the Bajo de Masinloc.

“It will be well to go beyond the realm of conjecture and focus on confirmed facts from credible and authoritative resource persons as basis for sound policy- and decision making,” Coloma said.

The Philippines is expecting this year a decision on the case it filed against China before the Netherlands-based Permanent Court of Arbitration over the territorial claims in the resource-rich waters. —Kathrina Charmaine Alvarez/KBK, GMA News

LOADING CONTENT