Philippines resumes ‘consultations’ with China over shoal row

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines has resumed discussions with China on ending, even temporarily, the current impasse in the two countries’ dispute over the Scarborough Shoal in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said Saturday.

Del Rosario told the Inquirer in a text message that the two governments “resumed consultations earlier this week to address the stalemate.”

“A diplomatic result ending the current impasse in Bajo de Masinloc, which we hope can be achieved, will at best be a temporary one. Ultimately, we will need an overall solution,” he said.

According to Del Rosario, the Philippine government was “moving forward with the legal track as a durable solution to our disputes in the West Philippine Sea.”

Stressing the need to “pursue a peaceful resolution” of the conflict with China, he said the DFA would follow a three-track approach that includes political initiatives via the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, legal action via the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea settlement mechanisms and diplomacy through continuing consultations to defuse the current situation at Bajo de Masinloc.”

The Philippines refers to the shoal also as Panatag. China calls it Huangyan Island.

Raul Hernandez, the DFA spokesman, said the department “will continue with our legal track in order to find a peaceful, durable and permanent solution to the West Philippine Sea issue.”

“As Secretary Del Rosario has said, the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea would provide an impartial venue for ascertaining who between the Philippines and China has sovereign rights over the waters around Bajo de Masinloc and also around the Reed Bank area,” said Hernandez.

On Thursday, Del Rosario told the Inquirer that a declaration on a China Central Television  broadcast on Monday that the Philippines was part of China was unintentional.

“Beijing, I am sure, does not want to be depicted as being in an expansionist move,” he said. “Perhaps, this should be declared as an inadvertent statement by (the Chinese government-run) media network,” he added.

Zhang Hua, the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Makati City said “it is apparently a lapse of words by the anchor, and as far as I know, the anchor herself has made clarification for it.”