By Joann Santiago
MANILA, April 22 (PNA) — A Palace official on Wednesday said the Philippines remains aggressive on its advocacy to make its position on the South China Sea maritime dispute known.
However, Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said that the government would continue to use the diplomatic track in fighting for its rights in the disputed waters.
“We go to international court, we go to international tribunal as the equalizer knowing that we don’t have the force of arms for us. But we do have the moral support or the force of principles behind our stand and that’s why we continue to insist that, as a member of the family of nations, that we will continue to do both the diplomatic and international arbitration tracks,” he said in a briefing.
Lacierda said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) conducted regular public advocacy on the issue both here and abroad, thus, the international community was familiar with the developments on the maritime dispute.
”And for that particular reason, you see the response of the United States, you see the response of G7 in support for our position,” he said.
US President Barack Obama recently called on China not to use its size to claim ownership over some islands in the South China Sea that other countries like the Philippines and Vietnam also claim.
Lacierda cited as proof of the international community’s awareness of the South China Sea issue the satellite photos of China’s on-going reclamation in the West Philippine Sea.
Relatively, the Palace official denounced accusations by a Chinese tabloid that the Philippines is submissive to the world’s largest economy through the Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) exercise, the joint military training between the Philippines and the US.
He clarified that the military exercises has been on-going for some years now and is not only about pure military practice as this has expanded to disaster response.
”The fruits of these exercises were very tangible in the light of Typhoon Yolanda when we saw our American friends helping us in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda,” he said.
Lacierda said the Philippines was not bound by the Chinese tabloid’s opinion on the military exercise stressing that “we certainly do not agree with how they described us.”
”We are doing this for the good of our country and I think our national interest should prevail over whatever comments they have stated,” he added. (PNA)