Daily Tribune‘We had a working group meeting last week in preparation for what we hope will be a meeting of the BCM that we hope will be held in early July with our Chinese counterparts specifically to discuss the recent incidents’
Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo
Photo from PNA
Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said there are efforts to engage China in discussions regarding the situation in the West Philippine Sea through a Bilateral Consultation Mechanism (BCM) for the South China Sea.
Manalo was responding to a question posed by Senator Imee Marcos during a Senate inquiry on Tuesday.
“Well, if there are some agreements reached on certain issues, there are many issues being considered. We’d like to wait and see and then if the conditions are right, then we can go up to a higher level,” Manalo said.
Manalo noted that there are “regular lines of communications” but the push for a high-level ministry-to-ministry discussion would depend on the results of the BCM.
He told Marcos that no high-level discussion had yet been planned.
Manalo said a DFA working group meeting was conducted last week in preparation for a BCM meeting with their Chinese counterparts in July.
“We had a working group meeting last week in preparation for what we hope will be a meeting of the BCM that we hope will be held in early July with our Chinese counterparts specifically to discuss the recent incidents,” he said.
Manalo said the DFA maintains that the “primacy of dialogue and diplomacy should prevail even in the face of these serious incidents.”
He admitted, however, that “it’s also a challenge.”
“We will pursue the peaceful resolution of disputes in accordance with international laws, specifically the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 2016 Arbitral Award,” Manalo said.
“And we have been working hard to bring China back to the table to talk with us and resolve our differences on these issues,” he added.
Manalo said the DFA is looking at “whether we can arrive at some understanding” or “some kind of confidence-building measures which could hopefully create a basis for more serious discussions to see how we can address these other issues.”
The DFA chief assured that they will uphold the national sovereignty in the talks with China.
“We will continue to pursue these efforts and let me assure the committee and the Filipino people that we are seeking an approach to a peaceful resolution through international law and diplomacy,” he said.
Manalo noted that China’s latest actions “are not in accordance” with the previous understanding between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Chinese President Xi Jinping on managing the situation in the WPS.
“Of course, we are not blind to the incidents that are happening and we will ensure that whatever confidence-building measures we achieve, they will be not at the expense of our sovereignty, sovereign rights, as well as our rights and jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea,” he said.
