'CHINA OWES US AN EXPLANATION' Two lawmakers expressed alarm over a new China law allowing its coast guard to fire at foreign ships in Chinese-claimed reefs, with Senator Richard Gordon calling it 'a serious cause for concern.” Read:
. I would like to know what they discussed with the President or the [Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs], if we are just going to turn the other cheek or just quietly accept what is,” Gordon also said.
He added that the executive session could also be a venue to determine proper appropriations so that the military can “come up with a credible capability” and to speed up the upgrade of submarines and land-based missiles “so that they cannot easily be destroyed.”Tolentine, for his part, said he worries for Filipino fishermen, who are possibly still not aware of this new legislation recently adopted by Beijing.
“I am bringing this to the attention of this august body because a lot of our fishermen are out there. Some of our fishermen, including those from Zambales, Mindoro, Palawan, Batangas, and Cavite, will go fishing not knowing the existence of this newly passed law by the National People’s Congress of China,” he said in a privilege speech.He also noted that the said law further empowers the Chinese Coast Guard to “set up temporary exclusion zones.
China claims nearly the entire South China Sea, including waters within the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines , Vietnam, and Taiwan. In July 2016, the Philippines sealed a historic win against China before the United Nations-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands, which invalidated China’s nine-dash line claim, a ruling that Beijing refuses to recognize.