MALACAÑANG is suddenly issuing a statement disowning a claim of Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo who hinted at a verbal agreement allowing Chinese vessels to sail the West Philippine Sea for fishing expeditions.
According to presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, there is no such thing as verbal agreement between President Rodrigo Duterte and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, as claimed by Panelo in his capacity as Palace mouthpiece back in 2019.
Panelo then hinted at the agreement allowing China to fish in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) — as “legally binding and enforceable.”
Roque likewise warded off allegations that the Philippine government encouraged Chinese vessels to stay in the West Philippine Sea — “This is without basis and is quite simply conjecture.”
Citing existing laws, Roque went on to say that a fishing agreement can only be done through a treaty or an international agreement concluded between states in written form, adding that no such treaty or agreement exists between the Philippines and China.
“Let us therefore stop making malicious speculations and false claims made to pointlessly inflame the situation. We ask everyone to just focus our time and effort on productive activities that will enable us to help one another at this time of a pandemic,” the Palace spokesperson further averred.
“The President does not condone unlawful commercial fishing by any state on Philippine waters,” he added.
“However, the President also recognizes that subsistence (non-commercial) fishing may be allowed as a recognition of the traditional fishing rights pointed out by the Arbitral Tribunal itself in its Award on Jurisdiction (para. 407) in the case between the Philippines and China,” he said.
This 2016 arbitral award by a United Nations-backed court junked Beijing’s “historical” claims to 90 percent of the South China Sea. This followed China’s blocking of Filipino fishers from traditional fishing grounds within the Philippines’ EEZ.