4 May 2015 – In a forum held on April 21 in Jakarta, Indonesia, discussing ocean issues, especially relating to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), represented by Assistant Secretary for the Office of Asian and Pacific Affairs, Hon. Minda Calaguian-Cruz, said that challenges in the region to marine resources management, such as the destruction of coral reefs in the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea due to massive reclamation and its attendant economic costs, should be addressed by all parties concerned in order to realize SD Goal No. 14, which deals with oceans, seas and marine resources.

SD Goal No. 14 was set as one of the 17 goals and 169 targets which have been integrated into the United Nations Development Agenda Beyond 2015.

In his intervention, the delegate from Viet Nam also mentioned China’s reclamation activities, which were not in compliance with international law and changes the status quo in some areas and oceans, particularly the South China Sea, and which will further endanger the marine ecological system and cause geopolitical tensions.

The Philippines participated in the Side Event of the 60th Asian African Conference Commemoration (60th AACC) on Exchange of Maritime Policies, Experiences and Challenges in Managing Seas and Oceans in the Context of Implementing Sustainable Development Goals, held at the Jakarta Convention Center.

A total of 93 countries were represented in the AACC and related activites, which was held first in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, and later on in Bandung, to commemorate the historic Bandung Confrence of 1955, which was instrumental in forming the Non-Aligned Movement.

The forum was organized by the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia. Other countries in attendance at the side event and that delivered interventions were Bangladesh, Madagascar, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Leste, as well as from representatives from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the United Nations Development Program.

The Philippines’ call to address China’s unilateral actions of massive reclamation in six features in the South China Sea, in contravention of the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, has now drawn the attention of the United States of America, the European Union and the G7. END