The one that DFA cannot name; Palace puzzled

Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda. INQUIRER file photo

Maybe it’s the diplomatic version of patutsada (sniping) and it’s the new style in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

Whatever it is, Malacañang on Wednesday shrugged off reporters’ questions about the strange talk of officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), including Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, that seemed to deliberately avoid naming China when discussing the problems between Manila and Beijing.

“I would have to ask,” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said when asked why Del Rosario kept referring to China as that “northern neighbor,” at a news conference last week.

Del Rosario’s undersecretary, Erlinda Basilio, has also taken to calling China that “neighboring country.”

Is this a new policy?

“I would have to ask Secretary Del Rosario [why he does not want to use the name of] our friendly neighbor,” Lacierda said, putting in his contribution to the mystery.

But he immediately added: “No, but seriously I don’t know why. I’ll ask Secretary Del Rosario.”

Relations between the Philippines and China remain tense even though the two countries are trying to find a temporary solution to their dispute over Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal) in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

The two countries recently stepped back from a two-month maritime standoff at the shoal, easing the tensions a bit.

But Chinese fishing vessels have returned to the shoal even though a Beijing ban on fishing in the area does not end till mid-August.

The Philippines did not recognize the Chinese ban, but declared a similar ban in the area for the conservation of marine resources there. The Philippine ban ended Sunday.

Lacierda said the government had yet to decide whether to redeploy maritime vessels to Panatag Shoal but he maintained that the Philippines would “not abdicate its sovereign rights” over the shoal, as it is part of the country’s exclusive economic zone.

He said, however, that he did not think the Panatag Shoal situation had  turned for the worse.

China, he said, had not taken any provocative action, and the government still hopes to find a peaceful solution to the dispute.

President Benigno Aquino’s thanking China for funding a water-improvement project at Angat Dam shows the Philippines “relates with China on different levels,” Lacierda said.

Asked why China is behaving aggressively in the West Philippine Sea, Lacierda said reporters should ask Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Ma Keqing or Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

Lacierda also shrugged off a report in a Chinese newspaper that China would send submarines to disputed areas by next year. He said the Palace could not confirm the report.

But he observed the absence of information about whether the submarines would travel through international waters.

“Obviously there is freedom of navigation in international waters and no one can stop any country from traversing these waters,” he said.

Malacañang also chose not to make an issue of the report that the microphone went dead as Del Rosario began to present the Philippine position in the Panatag Shoal standoff at the Asean foreign ministers’ meeting in Phnom Penh last week.

Cambodian officials, the hosts of this year’s meeting, said what happened was a technical glitch.

Lacierda shrugged off speculation that Cambodia, an ally of China, sabotaged Del Rosario’s speech.