Poe backs convening NSC for PH’s stand on WPS issue

THIS IS OURS Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) personnel aboard BRP Cabra monitor Chinese vessels at Sabina Shoal west of Palawan province in this photo taken by the PCG on April 27. The Filipino crew informed the Chinese that they were inside the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. The Chinese ships left as Cabra approached them. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Immediately convening the National Security Council (NSC) in order to come up with a united stand on the country’s maritime dispute with China would be a “timely intervention,” Senator Grace Poe said Thursday.

“It is high time that the whole of government comes up with a clear and united stand on the West Philippine Sea issue. The convening of the National Security Council ASAP would be a timely intervention,” Poe said in a statement.

“We cannot be divided as a nation when we talk about our sovereignty. Protecting territorial integrity is so vital to a country’s survival that we must not confuse it with friendship or utang na loob,” she added.

This, as she backed the call of former Senator Rodolfo Biazon to convene the NSC amid the Philippine government’s “confusing” stand on the West Philippine Sea issue.

“This is the country’s resources we are talking about. There shouldn’t be any debate as to whether we should protect it or not. There is only one constitutional answer—we should. The only thing left for us to discuss now is how,” Poe went on.

Biazon, also a former Armed Forces chief, earlier personally went to the Senate to call for the convening of the NSC.

“The NSC can provide us, the Filipino people, everybody—including the policymakers, national policymakers, national program implementers, and our people— a very clear projection of a clear, united national position on this,” Biazon said in an interview in the Senate.

“Because right now, we are confused and that is dangerous. We are not only confusing ourselves, we are also confusing potential allies in our pursuit of our national interests in the area. We are confusing our policymakers and program implementers,” he added.

President Rodrigo Duterte has earned criticisms over what many see as “confusing” remarks on the West Philippine Sea issue.

These pronouncements include him calling the Philippine’s victory against China at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague a “piece of paper” that could be thrown away in the wastebasket.

Duterte also denied promising to retake the West Philippine Sea during his 2016 campaign, saying he was only joking when he said he would ride a jet ski to the Spratlys to plant a Philippine flag there.

Despite this, the President insisted that the disputed waters belong to the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Duterte’s foreign affairs and defense chiefs have been issuing strong statements against China’s recent actions in the area.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has been filing numerous diplomatic protests against China, the most recent one being Beijing’s “unilateral imposition”  of a fishing ban in the South China Sea, which covers parts of the West Philippine Sea.

/MUF