“The President wants to secure loans and investments from China for his ‘Build, Build, Build,’ but we are nearing the end of his term now and we don’t see these investments or loans from China,” Rtired Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said.
“In fact, due to this COVID-19 pandemic crisis, I doubt if China will release those loans now because China is in a financial problem also.”
To recall, President Rodrigo Duterte has made a foreign polichy shift towards China, racking up $24 billion (about ₱1 trillion) in investment pledges with Chinese President Xi Jinping. In reality, few of these have materialized into actual projects four years later.
“All of these are for naught – we’ve wasted four years now, we have not acted to protect our sovereign rights but we can always start right away,” Carpio added, noting the Philippine government’s lukewarm response to China’s activities in the disputed waters.
Four years since the landmark ruling that Philippines won over the West Philippine Sea dispute, former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario pointed out that Beijing still doesn’t see the Philippines as having equal rights to the disputed waters.
“To the detriment of our people, our President has given full accommodation to Beijing,” Del Rosario said. “We have received nothing but vicious abuses from China.”
Former justice Carpio reminded everyone that the South China Sea issue and sovereign rights of the Philippines should be a top priority of the government. Since nothing of the sort is being done, he believes the people can do something about it in the upcoming 2022 elections.
“We must vote for a government that will assert and preserve our sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea,” he said.
