Senator JV Ejercito. PHOTO FROM jvejercito.com
Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito on Tuesday urged the Philippine government to file a “strong diplomatic protest” against China’s incursions and building activities in Scarborough Shoal and Benham Rise.
“The Scarborough Shoal and Benham Rise are part of the Philippine territory. As it is our sworn duty to protect our territorial integrity and sovereignty, I urge our foreign affairs department to file a strong diplomatic protest against China’s incursions and building activities in Philippine territory,” Ejercito, member of the majority bloc in the Senate, said in a statement.
READ: Carpio tells Duterte: Defend PH shoal
“As a member of the community of nations, we do not wish to engage in destructive military confrontations. We should therefore exhaust all diplomatic means in asserting our sovereign rights in these territories,” he added.
READ: Investigate Duterte-China deal on Benham Rise, Congress urged
The senator, meanwhile, issued stronger statements against China in separate posts in social media on Monday.
In his Twitter post, Ejercito said exhausting all diplomatic means would be “the least the Philippine government can do against a bully super power like China.”
“Definitely, we are no match against China in terms of military strength. We can exhaust all our diplomatic means to fight for our territory,” he said in a separate post on Facebook.
Ejercito also urged all other claimants, including the Philippines, Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan and Indonesia to unite against “China’s bullying tactics.” IDL
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