Philippines’ Marcos Jnr issues strongest call yet against Beijing for South China Sea code

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has issued his strongest call yet for Asean and China to expedite a long-delayed Code of Conduct to manage tensions in the South China Sea, denouncing Beijing’s actions and warning that economic cooperation alone will not ease security concerns in the region.

During his address at the 19th East Asia Summit in Vientiane, Laos, on Friday, Marcos Jnr detailed recent incidents of harassment involving Chinese vessels and Philippine ships in the contested waterway.

A news release from the Presidential Communications Office quoted the president as saying that in August, “Chinese vessels harassed the Philippine Coast Guard while on routine maritime patrol in Escoda Shoal which is within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Philippines.”

“More recently,” Marcos Jnr said, “PLA Navy missile ships intimidated Philippine civilian fishing vessels and aircraft, showing China’s continued disregard for international law and standards, particularly Unclos [the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea] and the 1972 Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea.”

“These kinds of behaviour cannot be ignored, and demand of us concerted and serious efforts to truly manage our disputes in the South China Sea,” he said.

He added that while “positive developments have occurred recently in my country, it is regrettable that it has not changed the overall situation in the South China Sea, tensions remain”, referring to the ongoing China-Philippines Bilateral Consultation Mechanism on the South China Sea that was able to reach an agreement on managing tensions around the disputed Second Thomas Shoal.