Palace: Duterte handled West Philippine Sea dispute carefully and decisively

President Rodrigo Duterte handled the maritime dispute in the West Philippine Sea “carefully and decisively,” Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said on Friday.

“The China-Philippine relationship has been placed on a better platform and has now been... better than what we experienced the last six years,” Andanar said in a media forum.

“This is exhibited by his unrelenting stance on the West Philippine Sea where he again mentions that the 2016 arbitral award - a significant contribution to the body of international law particularly the 1982 UNCLOS and that it singles out no one.”

Andanar went on to say that the government would uphold the full implementation of the 2022 declaration of the conduct of parties in the South China Sea, adhere to freedom of navigation and over-flight, exercise self restraint and protect the marine environment as stipulated in the UNCLOS.

The Philippine Foreign Affairs Department had previously said that the DFA had lodged over 300 diplomatic protests against unprovoked Chinese illegal activities in the West Philippine Sea.

Just last June 9, the DFA protested anew against the return of more than 100 Chinese vessels to the Julian Felipe Reef in the West Philippine Sea.

In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands invalidated China's sweeping claims over the waters. Beijing does not recognize the ruling.

Andanar, meanwhile, lauded Duterte for “strengthening and deepening” relations with China.

The Palace official also thanked China for donating vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are once again grateful to China, our friend for more than a thousand years for helping us through these challenging and tough times," said Andanar.

"With the vaccines China has donated, we were able to start our healing and economic recovery as a people and nation during the beginning of the pandemic.”

Tourism, cultural exchange

Meanwhile, Deng Jun, president of the Chinese Enterprises Philippines Association (CEPA) and Country Head of the Bank of China Manila Branch, suggested enhancing tourism initiatives and cultural exchanges between Filipinos and Chinese to strengthen foreign relations.

“We need to encourage the Chinese people to visit the Philippines and Filipino people to visit China,” he said.

“Experience each other's environment, interact with locals and have a better understanding with each other's conditions and circumstances,” he added.

Andanar echoed the suggestions, adding that holding more sports activities and cultural exchanges can further increase understanding among Filipino and Chinese communities.

Also, student exchange programs could be strengthened if both countries learned the others language.

“Perhaps we can send our linguists to China, and the linguists in China can be sent here to the Philippines,” he said. — DVM, GMA News