MANILA, Philippines: Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel 3rd cautioned President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. against making foreign policy statements on China and Taiwan since the Philippines adheres to the "One China" policy.
The senator was asked to react to China's warning to the Philippines "not to play with fire" after Marcos on X (formerly Twitter) congratulated Dr. Lai Ching-te for his election as Taiwan's new leader.
The China Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on Tuesday said Marcos' remarks "gravely violate the one-China principle and the [joint] communiqué on the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Philippines [on June 9, 1975]."
"We would like to make it clear to the Philippines that it should refrain from playing with fire on the Taiwan question, earnestly abide by the-one China principle," MoFA Spokesman Mao Ning said in a briefing.
"We suggest President Marcos read more to develop a proper understanding of the ins and outs of the Taiwan question and come to a right conclusion," Mao said in a briefing.
Asked whether the President should be careful with his pronouncements on foreign policy involving China and Taiwan, Pimentel, in a text message, said, "Yes, because we (Philippines) chose to adhere to the One China policy."
"That's our own decision. Hence, our actions must match our official positions. We have [the] MECO (Manila Economic Cultural Office) to deal with Taiwan. This is because of our One China policy. Let us continue to adhere to the One China policy," he said.
"We should be sensitive [on the matter]. The feeling of China is that [Taiwan] is a renegade province, then a national election was held in that renegade province, do we go out our way to greet the winner of that renegade province? We could have refrained from doing so," Pimentel said.
Pressed how the Philippine government [should] respond to the insults Marcos got from China, Pimentel, in a phone interview, said, "We have professionals under the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs)."
"I'm sure this is not the first time that they encountered such provocative statements [from other foreign governments]," he said.
"To be very clear: For bilateral relations and issues with the People's Republic of China (PRC), the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) takes care of those. If we want to take up something with Taiwan then we could use the MECO," Pimentel said.
"We should be consistent with our own decision to adopt [the] One China policy, which means we recognize PRC as the only so-called China and the capital city is Beijing," he said in Filipino and English in a phone interview later.
Pimentel added, "I may be wrong, but Taiwan believes that it is not a province of PRC and PRC believes that Taiwan is [a] province. So, if we have a One China policy we should be sensitive about the point of view or belief of China that we are recognizing."
Sen. Ana Theresia Risa Hontiveros said the Marcos administration should get its act together. "We cannot have the President, the chief architect of foreign policy, say one thing, while the Department of Foreign Affairs says another."
"In any case, China has no business telling Filipinos what to say or not.
As I've called for before, we must review this so-called One China policy. China has done far worse things in our territories compared to a congratulatory message to Taiwan," Hontiveros said in a statement.
Read The Rest at :
