Philippines says it wants to work with China to manage serious incidents in South China Sea

 

 Philippines’ Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo who denounced China during his meeting with Antony Blinken during his working visit in Manila, Philippines. Responding to last week’s incident that injured a Filipino sailor, the Philippines is determined to pursue what it terms as the ‘confidence-building measures’ with China, the country’s foreign minister said on Tuesday adding, “We still believe it is the primacy of dialogue & diplomacy should prevail even in the face of such serious incidents though I will not deny that it is a challenge,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said this in a senate hearing. 

 Regardless of what rules that Philippines ratifies, Manalo said, was that they would not surrender sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the South China Sea. “But secretly we are not blind to the incidents that are happening,” he added. The foreign ministry has formally protested Chinese intrusion during a replenishment operation, which Philippine military reported caused the critical wounding of a navy man and the destruction of Manila’s ships. 

 In a bid to defend its stand, China has dismissed the Philippines’ version with its foreign ministry asserting that the measures by the China coast guard were appropriate, legal and unimpeachable. Other Filipino defencists followed the Philippine Department of National Defense chief Gilberto ‘Gibo’ Teodoro Jr’s words repeating President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ’s statement that the Philippines is not a party to instigate wars and valorized Filipino troops for restraint to take hold of the situation and prevent a more extreme event from occurring. 

 ‘One shot in anger could have ignited something that, fortunately, because of the superior training of the troops, was not done and did not happen,’ Teodoro told the same senate hearing. China’s embassy in Manila has not yet issued a response to a request for a comment on Tuesday. China at least claims more than 80 per cent of the South China Sea area through its nine-dash-line overlapping the EEZs of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam.