Should President Duterte confront China on SCS?

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is leaving for Beijing this week to attend the Belt and Road forum. Former Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and his comrades are agitating for the President to raise the issue of Philippine sovereignty over the South China Sea when he meets Chinese President Xi Jinping. Such a proposal only shows the lack the knowledge and tactics in dealing with Beijing. Let us hope that President Duterte will not commit the same mistake which former President Noynoy Aquino and Secretary del Rosario committed in challenging the Chinese government on the South China Sea sovereignty issue instead of engaging in friendly dialogue.

It is a fact that before 2012, the Philippines had been effectively exercising sovereignty over that certain area in South China Sea which we claimed to be our territory. We reclaimed land in Pag-asa Island and other islets in the Kalayaan area. Every month, our navy and coast guards would arrest some Chinese fishermen fishing in the area which we considered as our exclusive economic zone, and towed their boats to Palawan or Zambales. The Chinese fishermen and their fishing boats would be released only after our local courts jailed them and imposed fines. On the other hand, although Beijing also claimed sovereignty over the same area, China did not reclaim any land and had never arrested any single Filipino fisherman during those years. It was only after Secretary del Rosario and President Aquino decided to bring the South China Sea issue to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague towards the end of 2012 that China started to block Filipino fishermen from fishing in the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal area. In 2013, China also started massive reclamation of islands in the disputed area. In effect, the Aquino administration had caused our country to lose our sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea as a consequence of Mr. del Rosario’s initiative in going to The Hague.