De Lima slams Duterte's recent remark favoring China over PH

Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has decried Mr. Duterte's recent remark declaring that the Philippines should not be rude and disrespectful to China.

De Lima said Duterte should be addressing such remarks to China and not the Philippines because China is the one showing continued disrespect to the country's sovereignty by refusing to recognize its sovereign rights in its 200 nautical miles (NM) Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

"In yet another proclamation of his treason against his own country and declaration of his love and loyalty for another, Duterte said that the Philippines should not be rude to China, making it sound like we are the bully and China is the aggrieved, when it is clearly the other way around," she said.

"Concerned na naman itong si Duterte na baka ma-offend ang Chinese master niya kaya imbes na ipaglaban ang ating teritoryo, gusto nya tayong manahimik at magwalang-kibo na lang sa pananakop ng mga Tsino," she added.

In a pre-recorded speech that aired last May 3, Duterte stated that China remains to be Philippines' benefactor, saying that "just because we have a conflict with China doesn't mean to say that we have to be rude and disrespectful."

He even stressed that the Filipinos have many things to thank China for, including the help in the past and the help that it is supposedly giving the people now.

The lady Senator from Bicol said Duterte's treason and kowtowing to China are grave insults to all Filipino who care for the Philippines and its people.

"Meron pa bang mas tututa sa pagkatuta ni Duterte sa Tsina? I don't think there is. This is the lowest of the low that one can become a puppet of a foreign power. And yet we tolerate it as if it is everyday that a Filipino President commits treason and sells out to a foreign power," said De Lima in her Dispatch from Crame No. 1062.

De Lima said Duterte keeps harping on the fake history that the WPS was lost during the PNoy Administration to justify his treason and cowardice.

"Quite the contrary, the WPS was won during the PNoy Administration when we filed a case against China and the UNCLOS Arbitral Tribunal affirmed our entitlements to our EEZ in the WPS, and declared China's nine-dash line claim without legal basis under international law," she said.

"But of course, from day one of this victory, Duterte already betrayed us by going soft and defeatist, refusing to assert more firmly the Tribunal ruling," she added.

It must be noted that in a landmark ruling on July 12, 2016, the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) found no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to a "nine-dash line" in the WPS but China refused to honor the ruling.

In a Twitter post, De Lima said: "We go for the right tack. Assert firmly, and unconditionally, our legal victory from the UNCLOS Arbitral Tribunal and rally the community of nations to our cause, as passionately espoused by former SAJ Carpio and former SFA del Rosario, the true patriots! No defeatism! No to treason!