MANILA – Adding fuel to a raging fire over the South China Sea, China this week imposed sanctions against a key ally of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who was instrumental in passing the Philippines’ maritime zones act. The move is seen here as a politically aggressive act at a time when both sides had been seeking to calm territorial tensions.
Beijing has accused former Senator Francis Tolentino, who ran unsuccessfully for re-election to the Senate under Marcos’s ticket in May, of espousing allegedly unacceptable behavior on issues related to the South China Sea, and barred him from entering China, Hong Kong and Macau, China’s foreign ministry said in imposing the sanctions on Tuesday.
“For quite some time, driven by selfish interests, a handful of anti-China politicians in the Philippines have made malicious remarks and moves on issues related to China that are detrimental to China’s interests and China-Philippines relations,” the ministry said.
The ministry said that Tolentino showed “his egregious conduct on China-related issues,” but failed to point out the specific actions on the Filipino legislator’s part that led to the action.
“The Chinese government is firmly resolved to defend national sovereignty, security and development interests,” the statement said.
Tolentino campaigned on a nationalist platform questioning China’s aggressive behavior in the South China Sea. In November last year he accused China of misleading the international community by accusing the Philippines of allowing itself to be used as an American proxy in a race for power in the strategic sea region.
The Philippines is the United States’ staunchest ally in the region, and both nations are bound by a mutual defense treaty that dates back to 1951. That treaty calls on both sides to come to each other’s help in times of aggression, and Washington has said that it will not hesitate to back Manila in times of conflict with any aggressor, even China.
The terms of the treaty have been refined over recent years, with Washington last year reiterating that the treaty covered attacks on the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) after what it said were “escalatory and irresponsible actions” by the China Coast Guard for harassing a Filipino resupply mission to an outpost on Second Thomas Shoal (which Manila refers to as Ayungin Shoal).
Both China and the Philippines, however, have worked to settle their differences diplomatically, through a “bilateral consultative mechanism” designed to dial down the tension between the two Asian maritime states.
While this mechanism is working, China nevertheless has not stopped patrolling waters in the West Philippine Sea – or areas that are under the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. Manila, meanwhile, has continued to reach out to what it calls right-minded countries around the world, including Australia, Britain and France as well as Asian allies such as Japan, which itself has a separate maritime dispute with Beijing.
The latest controversy then appears to put more pressure on Marcos’s government, which has pivoted back into the embrace of America – contrary to the policy of the previous administration of Rodrigo Duterte, who had embraced Xi Jinping unabashedly, even setting aside a 2016 legal victory that refuted any basis in law for nearly all of China’s expansive maritime claims.
Duterte is now in detention in the Hague for crimes against humanity for his war on drugs, which killed thousands. His daughter, Sara Duterte, ironically, is Marcos’s vice president, and is also seen as pro-China. She faces an impending impeachment trial before the Senate over corruption.
Senator Jinggoy Estrada on Tuesday urged the Department of Foreign Affairs to summon China’s envoy to Manila, Huang Xilian, to explain what he said was the “unjust move” against Tolentino and to convey Manila’s ‘strong displeasure over the imposition of sanctions.
Tolentino, he stressed, was well within his mandate and his actions were fully backed by Congress. Tolentino as a senator, he noted, had been the prime mover behind two key pieces of legislation – the Philippine Maritime Zones Act and the Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act – that were signed by Marcos in November. The laws bolstered the country’s maritime claims in the disputed region.
“His (Tolentino’s) actions were fully aligned with our democratic processes and legal frameworks,” Estrada argued. “For years, despite the Arbitral Ruling that favored our claims over portions of the West Philippine Sea, China has continued to bully, harass, and subject our maritime scientists, personnel and fisherfolk to inhumane and provocative actions. It is appalling that efforts to defend our territorial claims are now being branded as ‘egregious conduct.”‘China should be ashamed.”
China’s action “clearly undermines mutual respect and regional stability,” Estrada said. “Critical voices are not threats to diplomacy; they are expressions of patriotic duty.”
Terry Ridon, a House of Representatives member, called on the Philippine government to take a stronger action. Manila should “impose similar travel sanctions on current or previous high-level Chinese officials who had been undertaking disinformation against [Philippine] interests in the West Philippine Sea.”
Ridon had previously led House investigations into alleged disinformation campaign against the Philippines by the Chinese embassy here.
