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Raising Recto Bank incident to military level an overreaction —expert


The Recto Bank incident should be treated as a law enforcement and diplomatic issue and should not be raised to the military revel, an expert on regional security and international relations said Wednesday.

"Once you raised the issue to the military level, you are overreacting,” said Rommel Banlaoi, chair of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, in a forum in Quezon City.

The incident involved a Chinese vessel ramming Philippine fishing boat GEM-VIR 1 and leaving its 22 crew members behind to fend for themselves. The boat's skipper said they spent three hours in the water before a Vietnamese boat rescued them.

The Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest over the incident.

Banlaoi also said words related to warfare should not be used in  discussing the Recto Bank incident.

"What we need to do here is to address the law enforcement dimension of the problem, the political implication and the diplomatic repercussion," he said.

Lucio Pitlo III of Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress said the incident is a "wake-up call" for country leaders to fast-track the Code of Conduct (COC) in exploring the South China Sea.

"This incident is a wake-up call. It should compel countries to fast-track and conclude the COC," Pitlo said in the same forum.

“It would be concerete, strong mechanism to address disputes,” he added.

According to Pitlo, China’s target time in finalizing the COC is in 2022.

A regional code of conduct aims to prevent conflicting territorial claims in the vast potentially-oil rich region from erupting into violent confrontations or worse, an economically-devastating major conflict.

In ASEAN’s draft document, concerned leaders would welcome efforts to complete the first of the three readings of the draft code of conduct within the year. —KBK, GMA News

 

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