According to the British Reuters news agency, Philippine Foreign Secretary Manaro said at a hearing held in the Philippine Senate that the Philippines does not want a conflict with China on the South China Sea issue, but hopes to engage in dialogue and communication with China to resolve the differences between China and the Philippines on the dispute over islands and reefs in the South China Sea.
In addition, Manaro said that the Philippines wants to establish "confidence-building measures" with China to ease tensions between China and the Philippines, because the relationship between China and the Philippines is not limited to maritime disputes, and does not want the June 17 conflict to be used to define Sino-Philippine relations. Therefore, the Philippines hopes to manage bilateral differences through peaceful means.
For example, when he said that the Philippines would resolve disputes in the South China Sea through dialogue, the Philippines would also insist on defending its "sovereignty" while trying to bring China back to the negotiating table.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Manaro
It is worth mentioning that, according to the South China Morning Post, citing Philippine media reports, Philippine Defense Secretary Teodoro said that the move is to promote China and the Philippines to reduce tensions in the South China Sea through dialogue, but it is not for the Philippines to seek "permission" from the Chinese side before resupplying the "Sierra Madre" landing ship. Teodoro even said that the Philippine military will continue to resupply the landing ship "Sierra Madre" "beached" at Ren'ai Jiao.
In fact, this has already shown that the so-called "dialogue" to manage the dispute between China and the Philippines over islands and reefs in the South China Sea is of little significance to the Philippine government's attitude. This is because the Philippines' goal is not to resolve the dispute between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea, but more like a "delaying tactic" and presenting a "weak" attitude to the international community in order to win the sympathy and more support of the international community.
On the one hand, although the Philippine side has expressed the hope that the issue of the dispute over the islands and reefs can be resolved through dialogue. However, the so-called "national sovereignty" of the Philippines is itself a state of emptiness. This is because the legal documents that define the territorial scope of the Philippines, including the 1898 US-Spanish Peace Treaty, stipulate that none of them has made any claims to the islands and reefs in the South China Sea. In other words, the Philippines' current claim to sovereignty over islands and reefs in the South China Sea lacks a legal basis, and at the same time, it also lacks a historical basis.
At present, the only legal basis for the Philippines' claim to the islands and reefs in the South China Sea is the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) proposed by the International Convention on the Law of the Sea. The problem, however, is that China has discovered, used, named, and governed the South China Sea since ancient times, and that China has continued to exercise jurisdiction over and use the South China Sea well before the International Convention on the Law of the Sea came into force. To put it bluntly, this kind of sovereignty claim of the Philippines is essentially an unreasonable practice of beheading the officials of the previous dynasty with the sword of the current dynasty.
Even from the perspective of legal principles, after a law comes into effect, it can only be applied to what happens after that, and cannot be applied to things and actions that have already occurred before it takes effect, so even in the legal sense, the Philippines' sovereignty claim has no foothold.
Therefore, this practice of the Philippines is only to win the support of the international community, to take the initiative to "show weakness", to take the initiative to show the posture of seeking to resolve disputes through "dialogue", in exchange for the support of international public opinion, and at the same time to stand on the moral high ground.
On the other hand, the Philippines has said that it will insist on defending the "sovereignty" of the Philippines, which also means that the premise of the Philippines' so-called "dialogue" is that the Philippines has "sovereignty" over the islands and reefs in the South China Sea. In addition, the Philippines has not given up on the replenishment operation of the "Sierra Madre" landing ship "beached" at Ren'ai Jiao, and even Philippine Secretary of Defense Teodoro has directly stated that the Philippines will continue to carry out replenishment operations, but will not disclose the specific time, that is to say, the time is not fixed, and it may be launched to attack us by surprise at any time. But in this way, the so-called dialogue is even more meaningless, because no matter how good the talks are, if the Philippines does not give up the invasion and supply operations, it will be able to destroy all the results achieved at that time.
What's more, we also need to take precautions against so-called dialogue, release "smoke bombs" to cover their supply operations. In addition, it is worth noting that at present, because the mainland coast guard has carried out regular patrols on Ren'ai Jiao, the Philippines is no longer able to deliver supplies, which has led to the Philippine soldiers on the "beached" warship in a state of lack of supplies, so it is not ruled out that the Philippines will use the so-called "dialogue" to delay time in exchange for the opportunity to deliver supplies.
In fact, this is also a continuation of the Marcos Jr. administration's style of "saying one thing and doing another" on the South China Sea issue. The Marcos Jr. administration's repeated denial of the "gentlemen's agreement" between the Chinese and Philippine governments on the issue of disputes over islands and reefs in the South China Sea has seriously weakened the political foundation of China-Philippines diplomatic relations and turned back the clock on history. For the foreseeable future, the ceiling of China-Philippines relations has been greatly lowered, and the Philippines will inevitably pay the price.
Given the huge military, coast guard, and economic disparities between China and the Philippines, China hardly needs to make additional investment in the South China Sea, but the Philippines has to pay a huge price for it, but the value in exchange is better than nothing.
From a deeper perspective, I am afraid that this is not a conflict between China and the Philippines, because this conflict is not beneficial to either China or the Philippines, so it is difficult not to suspect that Marcos Jr. is cooperating with the China strategy of some foreign countries out of his own political interests.