DFA spokesperson Raul Hernandez. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – Find a peaceful solution to the Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal) issue and employ diplomatic means to resolve it.
These were the marching orders issued by Malacañang and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to Sonia Brady, the country’s new ambassador to China, the department’s spokesman Raul Hernandez said.
The DFA has expressed confidence that Brady would be able to use all her diplomatic skills in finding a temporary solution to the dispute between Manila and Beijing over the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) rock formation.
In a text message to the INQUIRER, Hernandez on Sunday said “the instructions to Ambassador Brady were to find a peaceful solution to the Bajo de Masinloc issue and to employ diplomatic means to resolve it.”
The foreign office “has yet to receive updates” on the issue from the Philippine embassy in the Chinese capital.
But Hernandez said, “consultations (between the two sides) will certainly resume.”
On May 27, President Benigno Aquino III named Brady, who served as envoy to Beijing from 2006 to 2010, to her old post amid a growing clamor for a skilled diplomat to handle the frayed ties with China caused by the territorial dispute.
Three days later, the Commission on Appointments (CA) confirmed the appointment of the veteran diplomat, along with six career DFA officials.
The President earlier told Palace reporters, “given the complexities of our relationship with China right now, it has to really be somebody who is the best we can produce.”
“[Brady] has been to China. We expect her to use her experience and contacts to provide added insight and understanding of Chinese actions and policies,” said Secretary Ricky Carandang, head of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office.
As ambassador to Beijing, the 70-year-old Brady has concurrent jurisdiction over North Korea and Mongolia.
Brady has been an adviser on foreign affairs since Aug. 19, 2011. She held the DFA undersecretary for policy post from 2003 to 2006.
The Quezon native also served as director of the agency’s Asia-Pacific office from 1988 to 1992 and had been assigned to its political affairs office from 1968 to 1976.
Aquino’s last nominee to the post, family friend Domingo Lee, went through a rough time in the bicameral CA despite the urgent need for a diplomatic representative in China, given the territorial issues in the region.
Congress refused to approve the posting, pointing out that Lee was inexperienced.
Lee opted out after the CA again deferred his appointment before Congress went on recess. He has since been named special envoy to China for tourism.
Meanwhile, the DFA welcomed United States Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr.’s call for the Philippines and China to sit down and find a peaceful solution to their territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea.
Thomas made the call on Thursday during the US embassy’s first media forum, called Kapihan sa Embahada, where he said Washington “has been very clear on our commitment to support a resolution of these claims in a peaceful manner at the negotiating table.”
He also said Washington would like to see a “deescalation [of tensions] and [promotion of] peace and [these] can be negotiated,” adding “we would not like to see any nation take untoward action.”
Hernandez called the envoy’s remarks as a “reiteration of the US government’s expression of support for the Philippines on the West Philippine Sea issue.”
He recalled that “during the “2 + 2 meeting” in Washington, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed deep concern about what was happening in the West Philippine Sea and stated that the US has been consistent in asking China to clarify its motivation and interest in the region.”
Clinton “also urged all parties to subscribe to a rules-based approach in resolving competing claims in maritime areas through peaceful, collaborative, multilateral, and diplomatic processes within the framework of international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.”
“This is the same position that the Philippines has repeatedly conveyed to China,” Hernandez added.
Both China and the Philippines have withdrawn vessels from the lagoon of Scarborough Shoal, where they had a more than two-month standoff over sovereignty.
Last week, the Chinese Ministry of Transport announced that more than 20 Chinese fishing boats in the lagoon were being called home because of inclement weather.
The Philippine side had earlier ordered home a Coast Guard vessel and a Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources survey ship, citing bad weather.
Despite statements from China that it had no plans of leaving the shoal, which Beijing calls Huangyan Island, the DFA insisted that talks were going on for the withdrawal of the Chinese government ships that were positioned outside lagoon.
The dispute began on April 8 with Chinese vessels blocking Philippine patrol ships to prevent the arrest of Chinese fishermen caught poaching sharks and collecting rare clams and corals at the shoal, which is within the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone recognized under Unclos.
Although a signatory to Unclos, China refuses to recognize the Philippine EEZ, insisting that ancient maps prove it owns the rock formation and nearly all of the West Philippine Sea.
Early this month, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told the INQUIRER that despite an easing of tensions between Manila and Beijing over the shoal, Manila will still push through with its plan to bring the issue to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea, or Itlos, based in Hamburg, Germany.
Del Rosario stressed the need for international mediation to resolve once and for all the dispute.
He said, “pursuing a dispute settlement mechanism under Unclos to validate our claims in the West Philippine Sea constitutes our legal approach towards a durable and peaceful resolution.”
The DFA noted “it is, as well, an option that is explicitly encouraged by many of our international partners to settle our disputes in accordance with a rules-based regime to include Unclos.”
Del Rosario strongly believes that Itlos, established on Dec. 10, 1982 by Unclos, is the appropriate third-party adjudication body under international law with respect to the Philippines’ EEZ.
Sometime in late April, China rejected the Philippines’ proposal to bring the dispute to Itlos. Zhang Hua, the spokesman of the Chinese Embassy in Makati City, told this paper the decision was final.