Marcos’ successor must carry on fight for West PH Sea – Tarriela

INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos “need to make sure” that the successor of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. will continue the fight for the West Philippine Sea, a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) official said.

PCG spokesperson for West Philippine Sea concerns Commodore Jay Tarriela made the appeal on Monday, citing lessons from the past administration which allegedly tried to “hide and downplay” the West Philippine Sea situation.

“We need to make sure by the time President Bongbong Marcos steps down in 2028 as President, we have to have a successor who understands the need for us to continue our fight in the West Philippines Sea,” Tarriela said during the commemoration of the Maritime and Archipelagic Nation Awareness Month in Luneta Park on Monday.

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“We should no longer allow any sitting President to forget about our fight in the West Philippine Sea and downplay it,” he continued.

Tarriela also noted that the next president needs to “pursue” Marcos administration’s move to “expose and publicize the aggressive actions” of China in the West Philippine Sea.

“The [previous] government tried to downplay and hide what is … happening, and those incidents that have occurred in the West Philippines Sea, in the previous administration,” the official also said in what could be a veiled reference to the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

“This is something that we are addressing right now.”

Tarriela continued: “Under President Bongbong Marcos, we launched the transparency initiative because we believe that the Filipino people deserve to know the right information about the West Philippine Sea … We no longer suffer bullying because we choose to be silent.”

“Three years ago, before we started the WPS transparency initiative, you can just walk across and ask any stranger and ask them what WPS stands for,” he said. You’ll be surprised that not everybody can spell out what it stands for.”

Former presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo defended Duterte’s foreign policy, saying Tarriela’s “predicate is wrong.”

“PRRD (President Rodrigo Roa Duterte) did stop fighting for our arbitral win on the West Philippine Sea,” Panelo told Inquirer in a text message.

Panelo was referring to Duterte and Xi’s bilateral meeting in 2019.

“He raised that issue in his first official China visit to President Xi,” Panelo said. I was present in that official meeting between the two heads of states together with respective Cabinet members. Tarriela is speaking from ignorance.”

Meanwhile, Inquirer is still trying to reach the former president’s camp for comment.

Tarriela did not name names but it was Duterte who pursued closer ties with China, a move later reversed by Marcos Jr.

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Aside from the “transparency initiative”, Marcos’ administration also greenlighted joint patrols and military exercises with the United States and other like-minded nations in the West Philippine Sea, allowed its oldest and only treaty ally access to four more military bases under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, and the deployment of two American missile systems in northern Luzon. These moves earned the ire of China.

Meanwhile, Vice President Sara Duterte, daughter of the former president and the frontrunner in a recent 2028 presidential poll, has faced criticism for her perceived lukewarm stance on West Philippine Sea issues.

Vice President Duterte said she agreed that the country’s position is “firmly anchored” in the 2016 Arbitral Award which effectively dismissed Beijing’s sweeping sovereignty claims in South China Sea in favor of Manila’s sovereign rights.

However, she said it is the responsibility of relevant agencies, not her office, to address these issues. /dl/gsg/cb