Marcos solgen blames Aquino admin for China’s behavior in West PHL Sea

Lawyer Estelito Mendoza has blamed the Aquino administration for China's aggressive reclamation activities in the West Philippine Sea, GMA News' Chino Gaston reported on State of the Nation with Jessica Soho on Thursday.

Mendoza, who helped draft the country's Baselines Law, said the case filed by the previous administration against China before an international tribunal seemed to have driven China to fortify its infrastructures in the reefs claimed by the Philippines.

"President PNoy (Benigno Aquino III) pursued it acerbically, vigorously to the point of insulting China so that China considered it a personal affront," said Mendoza, who was solicitor general during the Marcos regime.

"Ang sabi siguro [ng China], 'Sige, ganyan ang sabi mo, gawa kami ng island, buildings and fortify them with missiles."

He said since the country filed the case against China, Beijing has intensified its reclamation activities in Subi Reef, Mischief Reef and Fiery Cross Reef, among others.

Aquino's spokesperson, lawyer Abigail Valte, meanwhile, said Mendoza's statement "completely excuses China's behavior."

"That's factually incorrect and completely excuses China's behavior," she said in a test message to GMA News. "Why blame everyone else except the aggressor himself?"

In July 2016, the United Nations-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration delivered a sweeping victory to the Philippines when it declared as illegal China's claim over nearly the entire South China Sea.

It also declared that Beijing violated the rights of Filipinos, who were blocked by Chinese Coast Guard from fishing in the disputed Scarborough Shoal off Zambales.

President Rodrigo Duterte, however, set aside the ruling to avoid confrontation with China. He vowed to raise it at the right time during his presidency.

China claims most of the South China Sea, a key route in global trade and a resource-rich territory whose parts are subject to competing claims with Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines. —KBK, GMA News