MANILA – Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez believes the ongoing disputes in the South China is “the real problem and the real flashpoint” for a major armed conflict and possibly “the most difficult challenge” the country has faced ever since World War II.
During a general meeting of the Consular Corps of the Philippines in Makati City, Ambassador Romualdez stressed the importance of diplomacy as the best option to pursue, rather engage in any conflict.
“We are facing today one of the most difficult challenges that we have for our country,” Romualdez told local and foreign diplomats in attendance during the meeting.
“The real problem and the real flashpoint, which is why I’m telling you how critical it is for us – the real flashpoint is in the West Philippine Sea,” Romualdez said.
China claims the waters nearly in its entirety and has repeatedly said that the 2016 international arbitral ruling is “null and void”.
Adding to the volatile situation in the contested waters, there were a series of confrontations in recent months between Chinese and Philippine government vessels, which Romualdez considers “more alarming and could have disastrous consequences to the world.”
Such incidents, including laser-pointing of a Chinese vessel against personnel on board a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessel, have frequently occurred during routine resupply missions to Philippine-claimed features in the South China Sea.
“The aggression that we are now facing is very real,” Romualdez said without naming China. “Never in our lifetime even during World War II did we face such a challenge because this country will not let up on their claim in many of our territorial waters.”
Romualdez lamented that the unpredictable situation in the South China Sea have kept him and even President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. awake at night.
“All of these skirmishes that is happening there, there can be one major accident and either one of our countries the US or the Philippines can invoke the MDT and when we do, a commitment made by the US or the commitment we made will happen and then all hell breaks loose,” Romualdez stressed.
The MDT or Mutual Defense Treaty, is a 1951 defense pact signed between Manila and Washington, “binds the two allies to come to each other’s aid from aggression and help defend the other party.”
But after all the exchanges between Manila and Beijing, including filing of hundreds of diplomatic protests, summoning of envoys on both sides and demarches, Romualdez emphasized that “diplomacy is still the best option to pursue rather than engage in any conflict.”
“That’s what we are working hard on. We want to avoid having to find a situation where we will have to call each other saying we want to invoke the Mutual Defense Treaty, you have to defend us because the Chinese are already in our shores. We hope it will never happen,” he said.
Romualdez made the remarks when asked about growing concerns on the possibility of China taking over Taiwan and what Washington D.C.’s likely response to the issue.
He believes such a move from China will be a “calculated risk” and that Chinese President Xi Jinping “is not going to make a move unless he is absolutely sure that he can militarily take over Taiwan.”
“Deterrence is the only way to stop them from going into that kind of situation. So we’re hoping that every morning when President Xi wakes up he’s going to say – today’s not the day,” the Filipino envoy said.
