Walang balak si Pangulong Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. na ipanawagan ang Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) sa Estados Unidos kasunod ng laser-pointing incident ng China sa West Philippine Sea.
“If we activate that, what we are doing is escalating the — intensifying the tensions in the area and I think that would be counterproductive. Besides, despite the fact that it was a military-grade laser that was pointed at our Coast Guard, I do not think that that is sufficient for it to trigger the Mutual Defense Treaty,” ayon kay Pangulong Marcos sa media interview sa Philippine Military Academy (PMA) alumni homecoming sa Baguio City.
“So we are in constant contact, of course, with our treaty partners, not only with the United States but also our ASEAN partners and our partners here in Asia and that I think is the better recourse rather to go directly to the Mutual Defense Treaty, which again, I am very concerned would provoke the tensions rather than cool the tensions down,” dagdag ng Pangulo.
Noong Pebrero 6, naiulat na gumamit ang Chinese Coast Guard vessel na may bow number 5205 ng military-grade laser bilang bahaging maneuvers, laban sa Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessel BRP Malapascua (MRRV-4403) habang nagsasagawa ng resupply mission para sa Filipino troops sa Ayungin Shoal sa West Philippine Sea.
Ito ang tinurang dahilan ng pansamantalang pagkabulag ng ilang PCG personnel.
Nang tanungin naman ang Pangulo kung ano nag-udyok dito upang pigingin ang Chinese Ambassador para talakayin ang isyu, sinabi ng Pangulo na ang laser-pointing incident ay bahagi lamang ng pinag ibayong aksyon ng maritime militia, coast guard at navy ng China.
“Actually, I said we have to find a way around this because if we are such close friends such as China and the Philippines, these are not the kind of incidents that we should be talking about between the President and the Ambassador to the Philippines from China,” ayon kay Pangulong Marcos.
“And I reminded him that this was not what we agreed upon with President Xi (Jinping) when I visited him in Beijing,” dagdag ng Pangulo.
Umaasa naman ang magkabilang panig na makakakuha sila ng tamang paraan upang tugunan ang paglusob sa Philippine maritime territory at maging ang agresibong aksyon na nakikita ng Pilipinas noong mga nakaraang linggo.
Naghahanap ang Beijing ng direct line sa pagitan ng PH, China defense agencies
Sa bukod na report, umaasa si Chinese Ambassador to Manila Huang Xilian na magkaroon ng hiwalay na direktang linya sa pagitan ng Beijing at ng mga defense establishments ng Maynila sa gitna ng lumalalang tensyon matapos ang pagharang ng Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) ng Philippine Coast Guard vessel na BRP Malapascua noong Pebrero 6.
Ang pahayag ay ipinarating noong Biyernes, ilang araw matapos i-activate ng Beijing ang linya ng komunikasyon na itinatag sa pagitan ng Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) at ng Chinese Foreign Ministry bilang resulta ng state visit ni Pangulong Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. sa China.
“[W]e are also exploring some new… more communication mechanisms and I do believe that we also need to have some mechanisms between either the Navies (or) defense establishments of our two countries,” ayon sa kanya sa isang media briefing.
Nanawagan din si Huang paconsultations” na nagsasabing ang mga partido ay dapat pigilin ang “hyping up” ng isang isyu, na tumutukoy sa BRP Malapascua laser incident.
Samantala, pinanindigan niya na ang ginamit sa insidente ay “hindi isang military-grade lase at hindi nagdudulot ng pinsala sa alinmang tauhan o kalakal.”
Aniya, nakipag-ugnayan na ang CCG sa PCG hinggil sa insidente.
“Both sides have shown the good intention to avoid such incident from happening again. At the end of the day, that water is a disputed area so in order to avoid such incidents I think that both sides need to exercise restraint and refrain from taking any unilateral actions,” dagdag niya..
Gary P Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
