‘Arbitration, better ties can go together’

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines does not see the need to withdraw its case before the international arbitral tribunal against China to move its relations with Beijing forward, Malacañang said yesterday.

At the same time, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda told a press briefing that the country would stick to the multilateral approach in resolving its territorial spat with China.

In Myanmar on Wednesday, President Aquino told reporters on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit there was no backtracking on Manila’s tack on the maritime issue even after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

“With respect to arbitration, I think (Foreign Affairs) Secretary (Albert) del Rosario mentioned and I think it’s a good description that, first of all, the relationship between China and Philippines is multifaceted,” Lacierda said.

“The relationship is not solely determined by our dispute with China on the South China Sea. How Secretary Del Rosario described arbitration is best described by the United Nations, where they say that arbitration is not an unfriendly act,” he said.

“So we have stated our position. In fact, having an arbitration, having a third party determine the entitlements between friends, I think that’s a good way of saying: ‘We’re friends. Let’s have a third party clarify the entitlements between us.’ And so, for us… this is a way of resolving disputes based on the rule of law and based on international law,” he added.

Lacierda said the most important thing was that “there was a meeting of the minds on the constructive engagement between the two parties” but as to the details, they would have to leave it to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

He said it was also up to the DFA to “move on from the initial meeting between President Xi Jinping and President Aquino, which was certainly an icebreaker.”

Aquino said there were no demands made during his meeting with Xi and that “beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.”

Aquino said they started and ended their 10-minute conversation on a positive note.

“No demands on anything. And again, at the end of the day, I think at the very least, we had discussions at the highest level… the restart of discussions at the highest level – that’s an opening,” Aquino said.

“Then you would want to explore up to where this will go to. But was there a discussion on what’s the next step? None yet. But at least you started talking. Under their system, it is emphasized that when it’s their highest leader who talks, that is very sure, no backtracking, no changing,” he added.

No bilateral talks

But Aquino maintained a bilateral solution would not work for a dispute with many claimants.

“You have six claimants and two of the six will talk and settle the matter for all six, why will the other four be bound by whatever you decide?” he said.

The President said the Philippines would likewise continue to push for a code of conduct that would guide the behavior of claimant-countries in the West Philippine Sea but would continue to have dialogues with China.

“Now, at the end of the day, they might say something else so we are not closing the door… we cannot close the door to something we have yet to hear,” Aquino said.

“They might have found a new formula that’s acceptable to us… consistent with our Constitution then because we didn’t invent it, we’ll say we don’t like it. Now, that would be wrong,” he said.

At the ASEAN summit, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang proposed a friendship treaty with Southeast Asian countries and offered $20 billion in loans on Thursday but held firm on the line that Beijing would only settle the West Philippine Sea disputes directly with the claimants.

The treaty is seen as an attempt by China to dispel any notion it is a threat and Li said China is willing to make pacts with more countries on good-neighborliness and friendship.

Still, he reiterated China’s resolve to safeguard its sovereignty and its position that maritime disputes should be settled bilaterally rather than collectively or through arbitration. – Aurea Calica