Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo on Sunday said he is not optimistic that the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea will be completed this year, saying there was still a lot of work to be done.
Manalo said there were still many things to consider, making it impossible to complete the COC negotiations between the claimant countries within the year.
“You need all the countries to agree so that alone takes time. We have bigger issues, too. Political issues, whether the code will be really binding or not, we’re not yet there,” the Department of Foreign Affairs leader said.
Meanwhile, Senator Francis Tolentino urged the DFA to carefully study the government’s plan for another round of exploratory talks with China.
This was after Manalo last Thursday said the Philippines and China are set to resume talks on a possible joint venture for oil and gas exploration in the West Philippine Sea.
“Maybe, the DFA’s planned talk with the People’s Republic of China should consider the decision of the Supreme Court… and the context of the Constitution based on our rights on the exclusive economic zone,” Tolentino, vice-chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said on Sunday.
In an interview with radio dzBB, Tolentino said the DFA should consider the 2016 Hague Arbitral ruling as well as the recent Supreme Court decision that invalidated and declared unconstitutional the 2005 Tripartite Agreement for Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) before entering into another partnership with the Asian superpower.
In an interview with CNN Philippines, Indonesian Ambassador Agus Widjojo shared the pessimism of Manalo, saying almost the same thing as the DFA chief.
Widjojo noted that while the negotiations were progressing, much work was still needed to be done.
“We are entering the third part of the 1/3 of the COC,” he said. “But in diplomacy, it could be anything. The most important is the parties are willing to meet each other and talk to each other.”
The Indonesian envoy admitted the biggest challenge among the parties involved “having differences.”
“If you have differences, how could you meet? So, it’s important to have a basis for a win-win approach, win-win interest, and a balance of interests between all parties concerned,” he said.
Despite this, Widjojo said Indonesia remains committed to intensifying the COC negotiations, which resumed in Jakarta in early March.
It was the 38th meeting of the Joint Working Group and will be held at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat.
The COC is expected to be one of the topics of discussion in the upcoming ASEAN Summit in Indonesia in May. Indonesia is the current chairman of the 10-country regional bloc.
The 2016 Arbitral Ruling basically invalidated China’s nine-dash line claim—the basis of their supposed militaristic expansion in the entire South China Sea region, including the zone along the West Philippine Sea—as well as the decision of the Supreme Court last January, which invalidated the JMSU between the governments of the Philippines, China, and Vietnam.
Tolentino also stressed that any new agreement between the Philippines and China should comply with the provisions enshrined under the 1987 Constitution before exploring the mineral seabed resources within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone—which was also mentioned in the 2016 Arbitral Ruling.
The senator said they should not only talk about these two things, but they should also be prepared on what to do.
“So, in these two issues, to be included is the protection of our exclusive economic zone, 200 nautical miles from the baseline, and the Supreme Court decision,” he said.
The senator admitted he is quite hesitant over plans of having new rounds of talks with China, considering the series of bullying incidents involving the China Coast Guard and the Chinese Maritime Militia against the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine Coast Guard over the past months along the West Philippine Sea.
“The number of Chinese ships in the WPS might increase since they will insist on their rights to drill, to conduct ng scientific marine research,” he said.
“Due to this, our DFA should go slow since their presence there might increase, and there may be more abuses,” warned the senator.
Since the matter involves foreign policy and national security, Tolentino said it’s only proper that the Senate must be involved in any future exploratory talks with China.