This year is good time for PH to engage China - Hontiveros

Opposition senator Risa Hontiveros has reacted to the statement made by Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Boy Locsin Jr. when the latter described the relationship of two countries as having "flowered into a new partnership for mutual profit and progress" under the Duterte administration.

She said its not farfetched to have another set of conflicts with the Asian giant in the near future.

"In any relationship, when it flourishes, it's also possible that new kinds of conflict may arise. And therefore, we must be bold enough and honest enough to recognize and address and try to resolve these conflicts," Hontiveros told ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) Headstart.

Senator Risa Hontiveros
(screengrabbed fro ANC's Headstart)

“This year is really a very good year, despite our health and economic challenges, to engage China constructively with pride in our pagka-Pilipino (in being Filipinos)... because whether we like it or not, she is our biggest neighbor in the region, in this part of the oceans,” she added.

The former Philhealth chair said "good friends" should not steal each other's territory, destroy each other's marine resources, and "not allow their companies doing business in the territory of their 'good friend' to evade paying taxes."

The opposition senator said "some of the conflicts" in the Philippines' "flourishing relationship with China in the past few years would really be around the narrative of the 9-dash-line and where the borders of China extend to" in the South China Sea.

"They seem to be eating into the Philippine territory- the West Philippine Sea," she said, which also violates the rights of Filipino fishermen who are prevented from "sharing in the progress" in those waters.

Hontiveros’ Senate Resolution 369

The senator filed Senate Resolution 369 last April, which urges the Philippine government’s executive branch to exert legal as well as diplomatic pressure upon China to stop illegal activities in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) and to pay the appropriate reparation for the damages done.

"In order to further express our opposition to the damage they are creating to our environment, to our fisherfolk, and to our national sovereignty, there are concrete steps we can continue to take. And one, for example, I'll file a resolution asking the Department of Education to include our marine history, including our narrative of the West Philippine sea in our curriculum,” Hontiveros said.

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Report from ABS-CBN News

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