China wants to revive joint meeting with Philippine Coast Guard
China wants to revive the joint committee meeting between the Philippines and the Chinese Coast Guard which was annually held during the previous administration.
"Well now, the Chinese government is still pushing to revive the joint coast guard committee meeting between the China Coast Guard and the Philippine Coast Guard," Commodore Jay Tarriela, Coast Guard spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, said in a radio interview on Wednesday.
"But right now our stand of the national government is (that) all these discussions should be coursed to the Department of Foreign Affairs. The diplomatic channel is our means for now to communicate with them," he added.
Tarriela said the joint coast guard committee meeting was annually being held after former President Rodrigo Duterte signed a memorandum of agreement when he visited Beijing in 2016.
"We keep on talking to them annually, the whole term of the administration of the former President Duterte, but we did not have a substantial agreement where we all agree that they will not harass us. During those meeting the PCG delegation brought-up those issues, every time we had the chance to have the joint coast guard committee meeting. But of course it never materialize," he said.
"We had an opportunity to meet with the China Coast Guard leadership, for the past six years of former President Duterte, but there was no substantial outcome," he added.
Tarriela said compared during the previous administration the government is now exposing the incidents that are happening in the West Philippine Sea not just to inform the public but to also "gain international support" on the territorial issues.
"Well for the former administration, I think they have their own reason why we became so sincere and talking to them. In good faith, i believed that what the previous administration done is to really reach out to the Chinese government, to peacefully settle our dispute with them. But as I said, under President Bongbong Marcos, with his speech, I think he already said it twice that we're not going to surrender an inch of our territory to any foreign powers. It is being followed by the National Task Force West Philippine Sea, headed by National Security Adviser (Secretary) Eduardo Ano," he said.
"We are right now exposing, telling to the world what is happening in the West Philippine Sea. This is different strategy that we're having right now and we are hoping that not just for the public awareness to develop the Filipinos to become aware of what is happening in the West Philippine Sea. But also for us to gain international support from the United States, Japan, and Australia to condemn the aggressive behavior of China in the West Philippine Sea," he added. Robina Asido/DMS
