(POLITIKO) Senator Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada on Tuesday (March 11) urged the international community to denounce the statements made by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi who accused the Philippines of staging the incidents in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) at the direction of other countries.
“We call on the international community to denounce this baseless assertion and support the Philippines in defending regional peace, stability, and the rule of law,” said Estrada.
“Our sovereignty is not a performance, and our resolve is not an act,” declared the senator.
Estrada called the statements of the Chinese foreign minister “another blatant attempt to undermine our country’s legitimate concerns and distract the public from their persistent illegal incursions and provocations.”
“No amount of squid tactics can conceal the fact that China has been, and continuous to be, engaged in a pattern of illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive behavior at sea – and, most recently, even in the airspace of the Philippines,” he stated.
The lawmaker said no one should turn a blind eye on “China’s escalating coercive tactics against our maritime scientists and personnel, as well as their illegal presence in our territorial waters.”
“They have repeatedly violated, and continue to violate, international and domestic laws, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 2016 Arbitral Award,” he said.