00:00Voters in Bicol were urged by the Philippine Coast Guard to reject the candidates for Pro-China.
00:06Keren Bernadas of PIA Bicol has the latest news.
00:13Philippine Coast Guard Commodore J. Tariel urged the voters in the Bicol region
00:18to choose the candidates who support the fight for the West Philippine Sea
00:24and warned that voting for the opponents in favor of China
00:28is a threat to the Philippine maritime territory.
00:33Let us refrain from electing politicians who are obviously and evidently supportive of the Chinese interests.
00:41President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. passed the Philippine Maritime Zone Act last November
00:48that strengthened the West Philippine Sea as an exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.
00:54In 2016, the International Panel of Arbitration rejected China's extensive involvement
01:01but continued that Beijing did not pay attention to this decision
01:05that was based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
01:10Our fight in the West Philippine Sea will be very difficult
01:14if what we will pass in the legislative branch will give us too much difficulty
01:21when it comes to passing a budget, for example,
01:24passing a law that has a connection to the West Philippine Sea
01:28and exposing the wrongdoings in the West Philippine Sea.
01:31Tariel insisted that the creation of police, the allocation of funds for the West Philippine Sea
01:38and the surveillance of the aggressors from China,
01:43including the disinformation and fake news,
01:45will be difficult if there is no support from the national government.
01:49So it's important for us to make sure that the ones who will win the election
01:54are the politicians who will choose our fight in the West Philippine Sea
02:01because definitely, they are choosing the Philippines.
02:05For Balitang Pambansa, I'm Karen Bernadas, reporting from PIA Bicol Region.
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