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BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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Friday, May 12, 2017
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MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte plans to raise the international tribunal ruling against China’s claim over South China Sea in due time and at the proper venue, according to Foreign Affairs secretary Alan Peter Cayetano.
Cayetano said he supports the President’s plans on how to deal with the Philippines’ territorial dispute against China.
Duterte has been criticized for not using the judgment of the United Nations’ tribunal in The Hague in asserting Philippine claims over the disputed waters.
According to the tribunal, there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within the areas falling within the so-called “nine-dash line.”
“Give him (Duterte) the option kung kailan niya ilalabas, kailan niya gagamitin,” said Cayetano. “And we will follow the President.”
Meanwhile Cayetano thanked Duterte for his appointment but said the Commission on Appointments need to confirm it, and until then he remains a senator as well.
Cayetano vowed to “work hard” in implementing Philippine foreign policies.
The Foreign Affairs secretary and the entire department “will not have their own agenda or their own foreign policy,” he said. “Hindi sapat iyong welfare and protection ng ating overseas Filipino workers, kailangan iyong comfort and convenience din nila.”
Cayetano, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, was earlier tasked to lead a diplomatic mission in Geneva, Switzerland where he defended the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
He urged the public to “open their eyes and mind and heart that there [are] two sides to the story.” He stressed that was willing to resign or get jailed if his presentation on extrajudicial killings is proven wrong.
“Lahat ng prinesent ko is based on facts, based on actual numbers,” Cayetano said.
“Dati pa sinasabi na maraming extrajudicial killings. Noong 2012 pa lang, pinuna na ng — the same countries na pumuna sa atin — pinuna nila ang Aquino government for extrajudicial killings,” he said, citing Administrative Order No. 35.
Then president Benigno Aquino III issued the order establishing an interagency committee that will look into extralegal killings, enforced disappearances and torture, among other human rights violations./PN
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