Statement: On The Manila Times Article On Diplomatic Protests
MANILA 13 June 2022 - The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) denounces the malicious and groundless comments made by a certain Dr. Mario Ferdinand Pasion in his New Worlds column entitled “DFA protests controlled by the US State Department?” published by the Manila Times on 12 June 2022. The author did not offer any tangible proof that the protests were filed on behalf of any entity other than the Philippine government.
The DFA, as the chief implementer of an independent foreign policy, as mandated by the Philippine Constitution, is not beholden to any foreign entity and serves only the interests of the Philippines and the Filipino people.
The Department protests any act by foreign entities that threaten and undermine the country’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and legitimate maritime entitlements. The Department’s diplomatic protests are sufficiently grounded on recommendations and reports from the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS). The framework for filing of protests is clear and automatic: once a transgression is verified, a protest is filed. Under the administration of President Rodrigo R. Duterte alone, the Department has filed over 300 protests against unprovoked Chinese illegal activities in the West Philippine Sea. In the same vein, the Department has filed six protests on illegal activities by Viet Nam in the Philippines’ legitimate maritime zones. The timing and publication of information on diplomatic protests is the sole prerogative of the DFA and of no other entity. Unless this framework is changed by the next administration, protests will continue to be filed.
Most of the Department’s protests have been undertaken against China, simply because it is the country that has been conducting the most illegal and provocative actions in the WPS. These activities range from the harassment of Filipino fishermen, shadowing and harassment of PH maritime assets, unauthorized marine scientific research, and non-innocent passage in the PH’s archipelagic waters, even during military exercises. China undertakes these activities in spite of the agreement between President Duterte and President Xi to exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities in the SCS. The Chinese Coast Guard harassed R/V Legend, a Taiwanese research vessel, with Filipino scientists on board conducting important scientific research duly authorized by the Philippine government, on the day the leaders were scheduled to have their telesummit. This particular marine scientific research, which aimed to collect data on the geologic structure of the Manila Trench and Western Luzon, would have resulted in the increased knowledge on offshore faults and other features that may become sites of earthquakes, tsunamis, and other hazards, that will benefit not only the Philippines, but also the rest of the region. It is these blatant Chinese actions against the Philippines that have led the Department to protest and publicize the same.
The DFA assures the public that it upholds only the country’s national interest and the interest of the Filipino people, and it shall relentlessly defend the sovereignty of the republic. END.