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PALACE SAYS 'KALOKOHAN'

Del Rosario, citing source, says China interfered in 2016 polls to get Duterte elected


Former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario on Monday said China interfered in the 2016 Philippine presidential elections to get Rodrigo Duterte elected.

"On February 22, 2019, we received information from a most reliable international entity that high officials from China are bragging that they had been able to influence the 2016 Philippine elections so that Duterte would be president," Del Rosario told an online forum on the commemoration of the Philippines' international arbitral tribunal victory against China.

"We believe that our Beijing post can easily validate this. Moreover, subsequent actions of the President lend more credence to this information," added Del Rosario, who led the Philippines' arbitral tribunal victory against China in 2016.

Asked to provide more details, the former top Philippine diplomat said his information came from a "highly trustworthy" source.

Duterte has cultivated closer ties with China in exchange for aid and investments while often criticizing US policies and lambasting American criticisms of his administration’s anti-drugs crackdown.

'Kalokohan'

Asked to comment on this during a press briefing, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Del Rosario's claim was "kalokohan (nonsense)" and accused the former DFA secretary of being a "traitor" to the country.

"Kalokohan po 'yan (That's nonsense) coming from a proven traitor," Roque said, adding it was Del Rosario who, during his stint as DFA chief, ordered Filipino soldiers to leave Scarborough Shoal at the height of the country's standoff with Beijing.

"Siya po ang nagpaalis sa ating mga kasundaluhan sa boro na naging na ang Tsina na lang ang natira sa boro (His order is the reason why only Chinese troops remain in Scarborough Shoal)," he said.

Roque then enjoined "lawyers and other groups to study the legal liability of Albert del rosrio in ceding Scarborough shoal to China."

Lastly, Roque said that Del Rosario should stay silent until can prove that the country lost a portion of its territory to another country during the Duterte administration.

"Mangilabot ka naman sa mga sinasabi mo, ikaw diyan ang namigay ng teritoryo eh (Be careful about what you say, as you are the one who ceded a territory to other country)," Roque said.

Arbitral victory

The Philippines won against China in a landmark ruling on July 12, 2016 by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which invalidated Beijing's massive claim over the resource-rich South China Sea.

It was only in 2020 or four years since the ruling was handed down by the The Hague-based court that Duterte invoked the arbitral award against China in his address before the United Nations.

Duterte declared before the UN General Assembly in September last year that the ruling is "beyond compromise and beyond the reach of passing governments to dilute, diminish or abandon.”

Duterte previously shelved the arbitration ruling when he assumed office in 2016 and has been criticized for his friendly overtures to China despite its aggressive actions and efforts to drive away Filipinos from its own waters in the West Philippine Sea.

Several months later, Duterte, in a public address, dismissed the ruling as "scrap of paper that is intended for the waste basket."

Duterte's policy on WPS

Amid conflicting pronouncements by Duterte on the sea disputes with China, the DFA said it will "continue to implement the President's foreign policy statement in accordance with Philippine national interest."

"As early as May 15, 2018, our President proudly declared in Casiguran Bay in Aurora that Chinese President Xi Jinping has sworn to protect him from moves that will result in his removal from office," Del Rosario said.

In a 2018 press conference in Davao before going to China to attend the Boao Forum for Asia, Del Rosario said "Duterte professed his undying love for the Chinese President."

"It is certainly disturbing to see our President — who should be looking after his own people — relying on a foreign leader for his security of tenure as President. Moreover, such foreign leader represents an aggressor that is openly and illegally occupying land and waters that belong to the Filipino people," Del Rosario said, calling Duterte's administration a "failure of leadership."

Since 2016, Del Rosario lamented that the country's fight for the West Philippine Sea "has lost momentum as Duterte decided to set aside the Award in favor of Beijing’s promise of economic benefits."

Del Rosario criticized Duterte's appeasement policy that appears to yield too much to China, saying such action is a betrayal of the Constitution,  which mandates him “to secure the sovereignty of the State and the integrity of the national territory."

"With less than a year left until the end of President Duterte’s term in June 2022, his record of asserting the rights of Filipinos in the West Philippine Sea has been abysmal," Del Rosario said.

"As President Duterte himself admitted in his State of the Nation Address in 2020 regarding the Chinese presence in the West Philippine Sea: “Talagang inutil ako dyan, walang magawa ['I'm really useless there and there’s nothing I can do].”

"My fellow countrymen, this admission speaks volumes. Is it not about time for Filipinos to reject this man and what he represents?" said Del Rosario. —KBK, GMA News

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