Armed with water cannons and high-powered firearms, the Chinese naval forces had been pushing their illegal claim on the West Philippine Sea (WPS). They keep on asserting on their own nine dash line demarcation which encroaches on our country’s territory. Such claim had already been found without basis in an arbitral award issued by the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal. Yet, the Chinese authorities had the temerity to deny the ruling, arguing that they do not recognize the authority of the arbitral tribunal. They continue asserting their claim despite adverse international opinion as they arrogantly insist by the force of their might.
Our fisherfolks had been deprived of their livelihood as they are being harassed and drove away from the fishing ground that is historically and legally ours. The Chinese military had reportedly occupied our territorial waters and built artificial islands where they establish their military forces. In many instances, the Chinese had used arms and their military vessels patrolling the area to drive away our fisherfolks by force. Their vessels had rammed a fishing boat and its Filipino crew members were reportedly injured as their fishing boat capsized due to the damage on its hull.
The harassment continues and had even reportedly increased by the day. Even our coast guard had not been exempted from the attacks. Protests raised by the military officials in the area had been passed to our foreign affairs department but nothing had resulted to better our position. The recent incident where our military was blocked by the Chinese forces from delivering food and ration to the warm bodies manning the country’s territory had caused alarm to our government. In a statement issued by the magical president, he asserted as always that the Filipino will not give in.
Ironically, nothing concrete had been done aside from oral pronouncements that the government is taking steps to see to fruition the victory in the arbitration case that rejected the fallacious claim of China. Good to know that our country’s neighbors are giving full support to our claim. Also, the United States had issued declaration that their forces are ready to defend the arbitral award and our claim over our territory. The joint military exercises conducted by the Americans with our own armed forces had sent serious notice to China to halt its aggressive attacks on our Philippine territory.
Recent developments had China turning the tables as they assert that there was a previous agreement with then president Rodrigo Duterte regarding the supply of food rations to the crew manning our territorial waters. The oral agreement is being used by China as the basis for their actions, placing the Philippines as the violator instead of them. Many legal experts had posited their opinion on the matter, all against China’s position. Unfortunately, all our magical president could do is plea with the Chinese government despite the pronouncements that our country will not give in. And so we keep our fingers crossed as we send our pleas, repetitive pleas, unending pleas, pleas, pleas, pleas.
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