Palace: Elections not a hindrance to PH’s focus on South China Sea row

Amid rising tensions in the resource-rich West Philippine Sea, Malacañang on Wednesday said preparations for the upcoming national elections will not be a hindrance to the government’s monitoring and addressing of regional security issues.

Asked if the Philippines would be in a “sensitive” or “precarious” situation amid poll preparations, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said the country’s foreign policy has always been intact and inclusive, which “ensure the community of nations rally behind us in our support for not exacerbating tensions in the South China Sea.”

READ: China deploys missiles on disputed South China Sea island—report

“The entire community of nations are behind us in this, in our advocacy that we should keep the South China Sea as peaceful as it should be, and therefore, I don’t see anyone with the exception of China disagreeing with our position,” Lacierda told reporters in a press briefing.

Lacierda also expressed confidence that the successor of President Benigno Aquino III would uphold the country’s foreign policy to ensure a peaceful resolution of disputes in the sea row with China.

“In spite of the fact that we are in a transition where we’ll have a new leader by the start of July, I think the successor would continue the policies that we’ve started. It’s inclusive. Our foreign policy is inclusive,” Lacierda said.

“It acknowledges the need for cooperation between all the neighboring countries surrounding the South China Sea, and I don’t think one of them will disagree with the policy that has been laid down by President Aquino,” he said, adding that presidential candidates should make their positions clear on dealing with China.

Fox News on Tuesday said China had deployed a surface-to-air missile system on Woody Island of the Paracels chain, one of the disputed areas in the region. Citing images from a civilian firm, the report said two batteries of eight missile launchers and a radar system arrived in the island within the past week.

Lacierda said the Philippine government was still verifying the report.

“Whatever the situation is, we’d like to remind everyone that there is a 2002 Declaration of Conduct, where I think Section 5, which states that all parties should refrain from—to paraphrase—everybody should refrain from taking any action, which would exacerbate the situation. So we continue to monitor the situation there,” Lacierda said.

“Once we have verification, we will ask the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) to issue a statement. But again we’d like to emphasize that it will not be the interest of any nation, considering that a large percentage of trade happens in our seas, to exacerbate the situation or to (get us to a point) where tensions may arise,” he added.

READ: Aquino urges China anew: Respect UN ruling on South China Sea dispute

President Aquino is in the United States for the special summit between the US and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, where he called on the international community, China included, to respect the United Nations arbitral tribunal on the South China Sea dispute.

A decision on the Philippines’ arbitration case against Beijing is expected by midyear.

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