Locsin rejects suggestion for a PCG attaché in Beijing

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Tuesday rejected the idea of having a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) attaché in the Beijing Embassy amid rising tensions with China over the West Philippine Sea.

According to Locsin, the PCG already had a defense attaché for issues concerning national defense.

“A separate Coast Guard attaché means we concede exclusive sovereignty over our coastal waters so they are now subject to discussion instead of automatic protest,” Locsin explained in a tweet.

The Philippines recently filed a diplomatic protest against China for “continuing illicit issuances of radio challenges [against] Philippine aircraft conducting legitimate regular maritime patrols in the West Philippine Sea.”

In the same protest, it also slammed the Chinese Coast Guard's confiscation of fish aggregating devices installed by Filipino fishermen.

A day after, China urged the country to stop its supposedly “illegal provocations” in the disputed waters.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenza criticized China over the remarks, countering that it was Chinese forces that practiced illegal provocations in the area.

In 2016, an arbitral tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands invalidated Beijing’s claims over the West Philippine Sea, saying that there was “no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within the sea areas falling within the nine-dash line.” — DVM, GMA News