00:00President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has insisted that the Philippines will continue to guard the West Philippine Sea.
00:07Has the President called on the leaders of the countries to jointly respond to the issue in the South China Sea?
00:15Let's hear it from Gleisel Pardilla.
00:20In front of the leaders of the countries who attended the ASEAN-East Asia Summit in Vientiane, Laos,
00:25President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has tied up China's abuse within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea.
00:36According to the President, the three separate incidents in which the Philippine ships in the Escoda Shoal were sunk by water and washed ashore by China
00:50are only 70 nautical miles away from the Philippine coast, compared to 600 nautical miles away from mainland China.
01:00The President also said that the lasers were fired at the Philippine air force and threatened to use the Chinese warships.
01:09The President insisted that the Philippines will use every opportunity to inform the world of what is happening in the West Philippine Sea.
01:19There are many offers of help.
01:21And they say, if that is the problem, maybe we could do this.
01:24Maybe our country could send vessels.
01:27Maybe we could have joint operations.
01:29Maybe we could have discussions.
01:31Maybe I could serve as an interlocutor.
01:33All of these offers, which would not come if we did not make our position clear.
01:41And explain to them what the present situation is, how the situations have evolved.
01:50The President also insisted that the Philippines will not listen to China's threats and harassment,
01:58and insisted that the presence of the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea will remain.
02:04They intimidate our fishermen, they block our ships, our coast guards.
02:11We will just have to deal with it.
02:14Whatever happens, we will maintain that presence.
02:17Because it is important to show the world and our people that we are in the business of protecting our sovereignty.
02:28We are in the business of protecting our territorial imperatives.
02:34We are insisting on exercising our sovereign rights.
02:38President Marcos admitted that it is not easy to resolve the trans-boundary problem in the South China Sea.
02:46This requires multilateralism, or the unification of the member states.
02:52The Philippines continues to push for the creation of a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.
02:59Every single day we push for the conclusion of COC.
03:02It's much more than frustration because there's danger, there's potential danger.
03:09There's something we want to avoid.
03:11At his bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,
03:15the President asked for the continued endorsement of the Philippines' position in the West Philippine Sea.
03:22Meanwhile, the United States promised support to the Philippines
03:27in terms of freedom of navigation and overflight in the Indo-Pacific region.
03:33Kalaisel Pardilia for Pabansang TV in Bagong, Philippines.
