Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said Tuesday that the Philippines “has not surrendered a single inch of territory” amid claims over the West Philippine Sea.
Locsin said that the Philippines “pursued an independent foreign policy for the first time in the history of the Republic.”
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“We have not surrendered a single inch of territory. Not by word or deed have we weakened our right to everything in the West Philippine Sea, and without inviting pity by asking, we achieved an international consensus that the right is with us, and might cannot ever take it away,” Locsin told lawmakers before the House committee on appropriations.
Locsin also stressed that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 2016 arbitral ruling that favored the Philippines in its challenge against China over the West Philippine Sea must be upheld.
“DFA is proud to say, just because we have differences does mean that we have to fight over everything, but fight when we must,” Locsin said.
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“As country coordinator of ASEAN China dialogue relations from August 2018 to August 2021, the Philippines takes pride in the gains achieved in negotiations of the Code of Conduct on the South China Sea… It goes without saying, we must uphold UNCLOS and the arbitral award, and not undermine it,” he added.
China has not acknowledged the 2016 arbitral ruling and continues to send ships over the West Philippine Sea. (TDT)
