Palace: PH for US presence in South China Sea

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Tuesday said it supported any arrangement that would promote peace and stability in the South China Sea, including US presence in the heavily disputed waterway.

Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the Philippines wanted “stability in this part of the world” and that the Duterte administration supported “anything” that would bring “such [an] atmosphere” in the region.

“The Philippines’ position is that every country has the right to use the waters in the South China Sea as well as the air space. And we want peace and quiet in that area,” Panelo said.

‘Let giants do their thing’

“So anything that will provide such kind of atmosphere, we are for it. If the presence of the US will make it so, then that’s good for all of us — all the claimants,” he said.

“We will let the giants do their thing. We’ll just wait,” he added.

Panelo spoke after US Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore that the United States would not ignore China’s aggression in the South China Sea.

China admitted at the forum that it had been deploying troops and weapons to artificial islands it had built in the strategic waterway.

The Philippines would object to US presence in the South China Sea only if it entered Philippine territory without the government’s permission, Panelo said.

He observed that the United States had long been saying it would not ignore China’s aggression in the South China Sea. “It seems like what is happening is just posturing.”

China’s sweeping claim

China claims nearly the entire South China Sea, including waters within the territories of the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.

The UN-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague invalidated China’s sweeping claim in 2016, in a decision on a challenge brought by the Philippines, but Beijing ignored the ruling and proceeded to build artificial islands on seven Philippine-claimed reefs in the Spratly archipelago.

President Rodrigo Duterte, too, set aside the ruling in favor of improved relations with China, but questioned China’s claim at a forum in Japan last week.

“I love China, it has helped us a bit. But it behooves . . . us to ask: Is it right for a country to claim the whole ocean?” Mr. Duterte said.

On Tuesday, Panelo explained that the President’s statement reflected the respect of all countries for the law of the sea.

“As far as he is concerned, parts of the South China Sea are ours, [as stated by] the arbitral ruling,” Panelo said.

The Philippines does not have military muscle to assert the ruling, but the United States and its allies have been showing China that they do not recognize its claim by conducting freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea. —Julie M. Aurelio