Philippines conflict in West PH Sea is only with China: Locsin

MANILA – The country’s conflict in the Western Philippine Sea is only with China and not with other claimants, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said Tuesday.

Locsin, in a series of tweets, dismissed suggestions that the Philippines is in conflict with other plaintiffs who had taken on characteristics before the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was adopted.

The top diplomat agreed with the position of former Supreme Court judge Antonio Carpio, a longtime defender of the country’s sovereignty in disputed waters.

“To make it even clearer: When Vietnamese fishermen” poach “in our EEZ even though they are close to the characteristics they claim, we arrest them and let them go in a spirit of friendship because VIETNAM IS NOT TRYING TO TAKE OUR OWN. So Carpio hit 1000%: our only conflict in SCS / WPS is with China ”, Locsin said.

“SO ANY SUGGESTION THAT WE ARE SO IN CONFLICT WITH other claimants of the characteristics that they had taken long before the UNCLOS was adopted to confer SEZs, IT IS PURE PLATE AND PATHETIC TO TRY TO EXCUSE THE SOFT PEDAL APPROACH TO GIVE OUR OWN . NO WAY IS THERE !! “

SO, ANY SUGGESTION THAT WE ARE SO IN CONFLICT WITH other claimants of characteristics that they had taken long before the CONVEMAR was adopted to confer EEZs, IT IS PURE BULLSHING AND PATHETIC TO TRY TO EXCUSE THE GENTLE APPROACH OF PEDALING TO GIVE OURS. THERE IS NO WAY THERE !! https://t.co/CjIWIkXeQP

– Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) September 22, 2020

China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan have competing claims in the South China Sea.

The Philippines calls the part of the South China Sea it claims as the Western Philippine Sea.

In 2016, an international arbitration tribunal ruled that China’s extensive claims over nearly the entire South China Sea have no legal basis. Beijing ignores the historic decision.

At a hearing on the House budget on Monday, Locsin said there was no need to file diplomatic protests against other plaintiffs in the South China Sea who do not have an active conflict with the Philippines.

Manila has filed several diplomatic protests against Beijing this year for declaring parts of the Philippine territory as part of a Chinese province and for naming some characteristics of the Kalayaan Group of Islands.

He also protested that he had pointed a radar at a Philippine Navy ship in Philippine waters.