Comment by Jose Maria Sison, NDFP Chief Political Consultant
February 1, 2019
We cannot expect the traitor Duterte to heed the call of Justice Carpio to stand up for the territorial integrity and sovereign rights of the Philipines and the Filipino people in connection with the Chinese occupation and construction on the Kagitingan Reef (Fiery Cross).
In his electoral campaign for the presidency in 2016, he was financed by the China lobby and the plunderers like the Marcoses, Arroyos, Estradas, Remullas and Enriles. The armed minions of Duterte are complicit with him in treason.
Aside from being a traitor, he is bound to bigger plunder in connection with Chinese loans and infrastructure projects and to use state terrorism to assure him of absolute power and limitless accumulation of ill-gotten wealth.
Everyday that Duterte is in power, he victimizes the people with his treason, plunder and the most violent human rights violations. At the rate he is making the people suffer his tyranny and the worsening socio-economic crisis, he should not be allowed to stay long in power. ###
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Gov’t should block China construction on Fiery Cross Reef- Carpio
ABS-CBN News
Posted at Jan 31 2019 04:53 PM
https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/01/31/19/govt-should-block-china-construction-on-fiery-cross-reef-carpio
MANILA- The Philippines should protest China’s recent construction efforts on the Fiery Cross Reef, locally known as the Kagitingan Reef in the West Philippine Sea, Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio said Thursday.
Carpio, a known advocate of Manila’s rights in the disputed waters, said the Philippine government should file a note verbale over China’s building of a maritime rescue center on the reef.
“That’s an exercise of administration and we should contest that because under our law that’s Philippine territory,” Carpio told reporters.
“If a foreign country will say ‘we will use this as a rescue center’ which they should not do without our approval because that’s ours so we should protest,” he added.
Beijing had asserted it has the right to build on the reef, which it claims as its own.
“China carrying out peaceful construction on its own sovereign territory is only to contribute more to the region’s peace, maritime safety, disaster prevention, ocean research, and search and rescue,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said earlier this month.
If the Philippine government refuses to protest China’s recent activitiy, Carpio said it would tantamount to waiving Manila’s sovereign rights over the area.
“We should be wary of that because that’s an exercise of sovereignty or sovereign rights,” he said.
The Philippines and China have long sparred over the South China Sea, but relations have improved considerably under President Rodrigo Duterte.
China has assured the Philippines it will not occupy new features or territory in the South China Sea, under a new “status quo” brokered by Manila as both sides try to strengthen their relations.
-report from Willard Cheng, ABS-CBN News
