THE Department of Foreign Affairs on Friday said it will hand over the playbook to the incoming Duterte administration to continue to handle diplomatic initiatives of the country, including the territorial row with China on the disputed West Philippine Sea or South China Sea.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Rene Almendras said the playbook will serve as a guide to Duterte’s administration on how to weigh things with China, adding that the new administration will not have to worry about the territorial row with the China after the arbitral tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands releases its ruling on the dispute.
In a press briefing, Almendras said they will brief and turn over to the next DFA secretary a healthy, robust play book, and its role in solving a mutual and beneficial in the disputed WPS.
The playbook is a compilation of “four years intense diplomatic initiative of the Philippine government,” Almendras said.
He said the playbook includes the process the Aquino administration had undertaken in order to obtain the strong support of G7 nations, G20 and the European Union on Manila’s position vis-a-vis Beijing’s aggressive posturing and island-building actions.
While Almendras admitted that they cannot tell the new administration what to do, because we don’t know what the situation will be in the coming days and months, the playbook could help in forming decisions not only about the South China Sea, but the entire global geopolitics and economic relations of the Philippines.
Duterte has previously said that he is willing to talk with China over a highly sensitive territorial dispute in the South China Sea, his spokesman said yesterday, in a significant reversal of the incumbent’s stance.
Duterte has said he is also willing to form partnerships with China to extract gas and oil deposits that are believed to be in the sea, as well as explore joint fishing management systems, according to his spokesperson Peter Laviña.
China and the Philippines, under President Benigno Aquino III, have endured steadily worsening relations in recent years as they sparred over joint claims to parts of the South China Sea.
The Philippines has signed a new defense pact with the United States and filed a legal challenge with a United Nations tribunal asking it to rule the Chinese claims invalid.
Lavina said Duterte would continue with the UN case. A verdict is expected soon after Duterte is sworn in on June 30.
Almendras said that Duterte’s decision is not bad, but a good statesman should always open to facing the foreign counterparts adding “the role of the foreign affairs is to make sure that the channels of communications and options are always there. So we don’t draw lines, we don’t issue threats.”
Almendras said there are issues that require not just bilateral but also multilateral interfaces, depending on the situation. And the West Philippine Sea issue, he said, consists of broad controversies.
Secretary Almendras acknowledged that he has talked to some of his friends in the Duterte camp about the essential things to be done, but he has no definitive idea yet as to who will be the foreign secretary after him.
“I don’t know him, but whoever he is, I’m sure they’ll make an announcement soon,” said Almendras.