KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Juggling the relationship the Philippines has with China amid territorial disputes, and being an economic partner, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. believes that there are ways where the two countries can work together. 

In the ASEAN-China Summit on Tuesday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. emphasized the need to have a cooperation without coercion, and having a “partnership in mutual respect for sovereign equality and adherence to international law as guiding principles”.

While the President did not directly swipe at China, he sent his message in a diplomatic way, in which China responded similarly.

“I just laid out the facts. And that is what we do. We – I try always to just explain to everyone what is happening and that this is the situation the Philippines. Never mind anyone else. This is the situation the Philippines finds itself in,” he said.

“This is what’s happening to us. I wish you can help us,” he added.

Even with a carefullt worded remarks, Marcos slammed China for its attempts to declare Bajo de Masinloc as a nature reserve.

The Philippines disputes these claims citing the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and international law.

Issues within ASEAN must be resolved by body

Marcos agreed with the sentiment of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim that regional issues within the ASEAN must be resolved by the regional bloc.

“It is a bilateral issue between the Philippines and the People's Republic. But still, that does not preclude the involvement of ASEAN. And considering that ASEAN has as its members many, many countries that are involved in trade with China that are politically aligned even with China… So, that makes it a stronger base because you're not just depending on a single ideology or argument or principle,” he said.

Marcos noted that with other country’s support, the Philippines will more likely find a way forward to resolve the issues.

With his way, Marcos said he is not shutting the door for cooperation as he said he is looking for ways to prevent or de-escalate tensions.

“After I spoke about Bajo de Masinloc and about the nature reserve, I also spoke about what are the possibilities, how we can resolve or how can we work around such issues,” he said.

Will the COC will be signed by 2026?

While it remains an uncertainty, Marcos said he is optimistic that China would adhere to the Code of Conduct on the South China Sea.

“Earlier I said that at heart I'm an optimist. And that's really my view and we cannot give up. We cannot say that oh there's no hope and nothing's happening, we cannot move forward, we cannot resolve this thing,” he said.

Marcos said failure to find a way forward would be failure of duties to the Filipino people.

“We just keep trying. If this doesn't work, we'll try something else. If that doesn't work, we'll try something else. But we cannot stop. We must continue and continue and continue until we find the solution,” he said.

BBM opens invitation to Chinese leader

Should a COC is reached by 2026, Marcos said he will be inviting Chinese President Xi Jinping to Manila to sign the document.

“Yes. Yes, that would not be bad at all. I would – I will certainly invite him. That's for sure. I will certainly invite him and I would make all of the efforts available – all of the ways available, the means that we have available to us to show how sincere we are that we would like for him to come to the Philippines,” he said.

Marcos noted that the Chinese President has friends in the country.

“He has quite – a few friends here in the Philippines already. But, you know, that would presume that we have made some serious progress in our talks with them. And so if we get to that point where President Xi will actually consider coming to the Philippines, it would mean that we have made significant progress. And that would be a great thing,” he added.