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Former Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario claimed there were Chinese officials who alleged they influenced the 2016 Philippine national election to make President Rodrigo Duterte win.

"On February 22, 2019, we received information from a most reliable international entity that high officials from China are bragging that they had been able to influence the 2016 Philippine elections so that Duterte would be president," Del Rosario said in a forum on Monday.

"We believe that our Beijing post can easily validate this. Moreover, subsequent actions of the President lend more credence to this information. When we reflect on past events, we believe that President Duterte’s actions fit into a disturbing pattern of loyalty to a foreign power," he added.

Del Rosario also recalled that "as early as May 15, 2018, our President proudly declared in Casiguran Bay in Aurora that Chinese President Xi Jinping has sworn to protect him from moves that will result in his removal from office."

"It is certainly disturbing to see our President who should be looking after his own people relying on a foreign leader for his security of tenure as President. Moreover, such foreign leader represents an aggressor that is openly and illegally occupying land and waters that belong to the Filipino people," del Rosario said.

"Is it already a truism? While President Duterte holds office, are we effectively owned by China? Or is this one of President Duterte’s so-called jokes meant to escape accountability?," he added.

Del Rosario said, according to former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, shortly after the issuance of the Arbitral Award in 2016, Duterte "set aside the Award in favor of Chinese loans and investments that have barely materialized until this day."

"In the same year, President Duterte announced that the Philippine Navy will patrol only the 12-nautical mile territorial sea of the Philippines, in violation of the constitutional mandate that the Philippine State shall protect the country’s 200-nautical mile EEZ," he said.

"In 2019, President Duterte announced that he entered into a verbal agreement with President Xi Jinping allowing Chinese fishermen to fish in our waters?violating the Constitution which provides that the fish in our EEZ belongs only to Filipinos," he added.

Del Rosario also noted that "Duterte’s repeated false assertion that China is “in possession” of the West Philippine Sea recklessly concedes Philippine lands and waters to China more than what China actually possesses."

"Through these acts, many Filipinos have reason to believe that our President has been discrediting our nation. For the last five years, what we see is a betrayal of the Filipino people," he said.

"When President Duterte admitted that he was “inutil” with respect to the West Philippine Sea, the honorable thing left for him to do was to step down given his admission that he could not fulfill his sworn mandate as President to protect the West Philippine Sea," he added,

As he emphasized what he called the "failure of leadership" of the present administration, Del Rosario said it is about time that Duterte should be replaced.

"Is it not about time for Filipinos to reject this man and what he represents?" said Del Rosario.

"I think it's time to replace him," he added. Robina Asido/DMS