Malacañang on Chinese warships passing through Sibutu Strait: We want to know why

Malacañang on Saturday said it would be important to know the reason why Chinese warships have repeatedly been passing through Sibutu Strait near Tawi-tawi.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana earlier said the recent movement of the armed Chinese vessels reported by the Western Mindanao Command has become an "irritant."

“We want to know bakit sila doon dumadaan," presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo told reporters on Saturday.

However, Panelo could not say for certain whether the incursions will be raised by President Rodrigo Duterte during his expected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping this month.

"That’s the call of the President, whatever issue he wants to take with the President Xi," Panelo said.

"But I suppose taking that up will also be important because, as Mr. Lorenzana said...the incident has been repeatedly done and, therefore, it is becoming an irritant, and we have to know exactly why they’re passing through that straight when the shortest route going to China can be done on a different route,” he added.

Malacañang on Thursday expressed its concern over the military's report that five more Chinese warships sailed in Philippine waters Sibutu Strait without informing Manila, saying it was not “an act of friendship.”

Panelo then said the actions of the Chinese warships may be a violation of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which only allows innocent passage of ships through the territorial sea of a coastal state provided that it will be “continuous and expeditious.”

Lieutenant General Cirilito Sobejana, commander of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Western Mindanao Command, said on Wednesday that two Chinese warships were spotted in Sibutu Strait near Tawi-Tawi in July while three were monitored in August. —with a report from JP Soriano/Margaret Claire Layug/KG, GMA News