MANILA, Philippines — National Maritime Council (NMC) chief Alexander Lopez does not see the need to repeatedly rebut the several claims of Beijing’s embassy in Manila.
Chinese Embassy Deputy Spokesperson Guo Wei accused the country of using Filipino fisherfolk to spark tensions, questioning its term “maritime zones”, among other claims.
“We will not answer that point by point because we have previously answered that, so no need to come with those rebuttals anymore,” Lopez said in a public briefing.
“We want to come up with a higher ground, we discuss issues and we do not discuss personalities,” he added.
‘Staging provocation’, ‘maritime zones’ addressed by NMC
The verbal tussle between the body that oversees the country’s maritime and archipelagic policy, and the Chinese Embassy began when, on January 8, Guo accused the Philippine government of “staging provocations” using Filipino fisherfolk.
The NMC on January 12, called the claim “preposterous and completely false,” saying Filipino fisherfolk are “civilians lawfully pursuing their livelihoods within the Philippines’ maritime zones.”
On the same date, Guo also responded and zeroed in on NMC’s remark on “maritime zones”, asserting that there is no such concept in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).
NMC chief Alexander Lopez called this claim misleading.
Lopez explained that while the term “maritime zone” is not in Unclos, the term actually refers to areas, namely: territorial sea, contiguous...
MANILA, Philippines — National Maritime Council (NMC) chief Alexander Lopez does not see the need to repeatedly rebut the several claims of Beijing’s embassy in Manila. Chinese Embassy Deputy Spok...