(PHILSTAR) TANAY, Rizal (Updated 3:41 p.m.) — Two leaders of the Senate defense panel condemned Thursday what they called bullying by China after one of its coast guard ships almost caused a collission with a Philippine Coast Guard vessel in the West Philippine Sea
“Our fishermen and Coast Guard have been bullied several times there. This is not only the 10th time, maybe this is more than the hundredth time that we are bullied by the Chinese,” Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, Senate defense panel chairperson, told reporters in Filipino at a property he owns in Rizal province.
Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, one of the committee’s vice-chairpersons, also called China’s cutting off of a PCG vessel as it approached Ayungin Shoal last Sunday “too much of bullying.”
Although the executive sets foreign affairs policy, the Senate has an oversight function on the executive and its concurrence is required in the ratification of treaties.
Both Estrada and Dela Rosa bemoaned that hardly anything has happened with the hundreds of diplomatic protests lodged by the Philippines with China over its increasingly aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, portions of which are inside the Philippines’.
“We file diplomatic protests. We have filed hundreds of diplomatic protests, but nothing has happened,” Estrada said.
Dela Rosa echoed this, noting that the diplomatic protests have largely been “ignored by China.”
Both defense panel leaders advised against escalating tension with China, though.
“We cannot afford to fire the first shot that would trigger a shooting war. My advice to our Coast Guard is to maximize their escape and evasion tactics and remember always that patience is a virtue,” Dela Rosa said.
For Estrada, the Philippines must work with regional allies to address Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea.
“This is too much!” Sen. JV Ejercito, Estrada’s brother, said in Filipino in a separate statement.
“The Chinese government through their Coast Guard has been consistently harassing bullying our Coast Guard Vessels and fishermen,” he said, adding the incidents disrespect Philippine sovereignty.
“We need to strengthen our alliance with right-thinking nations to prevent Chinese [coast guard] aggression,” he said.