Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday said the Chinese coast guard aiming a military-grade laser that briefly blinded some crew aboard a Philippine patrol vessel in the disputed South China Sea was not enough for him to invoke a mutual defense treaty with the US, but added that he told China that such aggression should stop.
Marcos told a news conference that he also told China’s ambassador to the Philippines that escalating aggression and incursions into Philippine waters by the Chinese coast guard, navy and maritime militia forces contravene an agreement he struck with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) last month.
“Despite the fact that it was a military-grade laser that was pointed at our coast guard, I do not think that that is sufficient for it to trigger the mutual defense treaty,” Marcos said in his first public remarks about the Feb. 6 incident involving two Chinese and Philippine coast guard vessels near the disputed Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙), which is also claimed by Taiwan.
Photo: AP
Responding to a question, Marcos said he was concerned that activating the 1951 treaty would ratchet up regional tensions.
Marcos spoke to reporters in the northern resort city of Baguio, where he delivered a speech to cadets and former graduates of the Philippine Military Academy and repeated a vow to defend the country’s territory amid a new territorial spat with China.
“This country will not lose one inch of its territory,” Marcos said to applause. “We will continue to uphold our territorial integrity and sovereignty in accordance with our constitution and with international law.”
Photo: AFP / PHILIPPINE COAST GUARD
“We will work with our neighbors to secure the safety and security of our peoples,” Marcos said without elaborating.
Like his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, Marcos has taken steps to nurture friendly ties with Beijing.
He met Xi in Beijing early last month to boost relations and discuss the countries’ long-seething territorial disputes in the strategic waterway that also involve Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.
China claims the South China Sea virtually in its entirety, putting it on a collision course with other Asian claimants and separately with Washington, which lays no claims to the disputed sea, but has deployed US Navy ships and fighter jets to patrol the waters, promote freedom of mobility and challenge China’s territorial claims.
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