MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has not ordered the military to stop patrolling the West Philippine Sea, Malacañang and Armed Forces officials said.
Opposition lawmaker Gary Alejano, a Magdalo party-list representative, claimed that Duterte directed the Armed Forces to halt patrol activities in the disputed body of water.
Colonel Edgard Arevalo, Armed Forces spokesperson, disputed this in a radio interview on Sunday.
“We did not receive such information,” Arevalo said in Filipino.
“We have contacted our AFP chief (General Carlito Galvez Jr.) and our Western Command in Palawan, and all of them said the commander-in-chief did not issue such an order,” he added.
Ongoing air and sea patrols are part of the military’s mandate to protect Philippine sovereignty and territorial integrity, Arevalo said.
Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go also clarified that there was no such order.
“The President will not order that. First of all, what’s ours is ours. We will patrol in those areas,” Go said in Filipino.
“Even in his talks abroad, the President always emphasizes that what’s ours is ours,” he told reporters after speaking in a gathering of the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. in Tondo on Saturday.
Citing military sources, Alejano claimed on the same day he received information that Duterte ordered the Armed Forces to “stop wasting time” patrolling the West Philippine Sea – how the Philippines officially calls the South China Sea.
Alejano said he does not have solid evidence to support his claim but stressed that he trusts his sources.
China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan have overlapping claims on the strategic sea lane, where trillion dollars’ worth of trade passes annually.
On May 11 a Philippine Navy boat resupplying Filipino troops at the Ayungin Shoal was challenged and harassed by the Chinese coast guard and People’s Liberation Army Navy.
Foreign Affairs secretary Alan Peter Cayetano confirmed last week that the government lodged a protest against Beijing with regard to the incident. (PNA)
