Sumunod kayo sa international law.
Mensahe ito ni Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro sa China na patuloy na nanggugulo sa West Philippine Sea.
Tinanong kasi si Teodoro kung ano ang masasabi nito sa naging pahayag ni Philippine Coast Guard Commodore Jay Tarriela na bagamat nais ng defense minister na magkaroon ng diyalogo kaugnay sa komprontasyon sa maritime issue, hindi naman magkatugma ang aksyon at mga salita nito.
Sabi ni Teodoro, kailangan munang makuha ng China ang tiwala ng Pilipinas.
“As a stronger country, it has the bigger obligation to be magnanimous and show trust, and to earn the trust of the Filipino people by conforming its activities to recognized norms of international law, which in our case is UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), you know. We are talking about the arbitral award it has already been stated by our two past presidents that our rights and territory are defined by UNCLOS and it has been stated too that this cannot be frittered away or bargained away by passages of administration or passage of time,” pahayag ni Teodoro.
Sinabi pa ni Teodoro na dapat na maging transparent ang China dahil ito ang bukod tanging paraan para makuha ang tiwala ng Pilipinas.
“So in that same vain, we have to follow transparent procedures and that is the best way to build trust, that being said, relations between two countries are not mono-dimensional; there other relationship that we need to build up. China is a big market for this country and we realize that and, I think the United States realizes it too. We live in a more conflicted world were we hope that even in the Ukraine-Russia problem our supply chain are affected ‘no, being a net importer country ‘no. So, really hope that the benefit of everybody as world citizens will outweigh other interest,” pahayag ni Teodoro.