The camp of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Thursday accused the Aquino administration of “provoking” China into building artificial islands in the South China Sea by submitting the territorial dispute between the two countries to international arbitration.
The camp of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Thursday accused the Aquino administration of “provoking” China into building artificial islands in the South China Sea by submitting the territorial dispute between the two countries to international arbitration.
Speaking at a news conference with Arroyo and her former executive secretary, Eduardo Ermita, lawyer Estelito Mendoza said China had categorically stated that the Philippine case in the UN-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague had provoked it into building artificial islands, including on a shoal in the Kalayaan Island Group in the Spratly archipelago.
Three times, Arroyo, in a naughty tone, emphasized that the artificial islands were built by China “during the previous administration.”
“In effect we were fighting in The Hague. Maybe we are winning in The Hague. But China made it a point that they were winning in the waters of the South China Sea. That would now be the most difficult problem of President Duterte, the islands built during the Aquino administration, ” Mendoza said.
Mendoza ‘primer’
Arroyo—who now holds the seat of the second district of Pampanga in the House of Representatives—Mendoza and Ermita tackled the South China Sea dispute at the launch of the veteran lawyer’s “primer” on the Philippines’ maritime area, which tackles mainly Republic Act No.
