Senators have urged President Duterte to file a strong protest against China’s plan to build an environmental monitoring station on Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal and its incursions into Benham Rise.
Senators have urged President Duterte to file a strong protest against China’s plan to build an environmental monitoring station on Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal and its incursions into Benham Rise.
Sen. JV Ejercito called for diplomatic action after Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio proposed five options that Mr. Duterte could take instead of saying publicly that he could not stop China’s plan to build a station on Panatag Shoal.
The first of those five options was to file a strong protest, like what Vietnam did after China sent a cruise ship to the Paracels, a group of islands in the South China Sea whose ownership is disputed by Hanoi and Beijing.
“It’s our sworn duty to protect our territorial integrity and sovereignty,” Ejercito said in a tweet on Monday night.
The Philippines cannot match China’s military might, but “we can exhaust all other diplomatic means to fight for our territory,” he said.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II told reporters on Tuesday that the government was preparing a “fairly strong case” against China, but did not provide details.
