By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS ENRICHED by having dealt with issues at close range and without the restrictions of toeing the government line, former government officials usually are the voice of wisdom on current issues. Such was speech of former Foreign Secretary Roberto R. Romulo (Ramos administration) at the Manila Times Business Forum last Wednesday
By ELLEN TORDESILLAS STATEMENTS coming from Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario betray helplessness over the situation in the South China Sea. The Philippines is losing the battle that he led the country to wage against China. Last Thursday Del Rosario said that the Philippines will ask the United Nations Arbitral Court to hasten the resolution
By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS USING China’s very own ancient maps, Justice Antonio T. Carpio debunked the Asian superpower’s ownership claims of almost the whole of South China Sea based on “historical facts.” In a lecture at De La Salle University “Historical Facts, Historical Lies and Historical Rights in the West Philippine Sea,” Carpio took up
By VERA FILES THE newly signed Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the U.S. will not help the Philippines if China decides to be more aggressive in asserting its claim on the West Philippine Sea, an international law expert said. Lawyer Harry Roque, director of the University of the Philippines Law Center’s Institute for International
By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS NO ifs and buts about it: the Philippines and China are no longer friends. That’s a decision that the Philippines made when it hauled China to the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal over the latter’s all -South -China -Sea-encompassing 9-dash line map. As former ambassador to the United Nations Lauro Baja
By ELLEN TORDESILLAS DOES Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario have a problem with the case filed with the United Nations Arbitral Court against China’s nine-dash line map that prompted him to commission Social Weather Stations to do a survey which focused on the case and the problem with China in the West Philippine Sea? SWS
By ELLEN TORDESILLAS CHINA on Friday reminded President Aquino it had fought on the side of the Allied Powers against fascist Japan and Germany in World War II, after Aquino likened China’s encroachment into the South China Sea with Adolf Hitler’s hegemonic moves in World War II. In a press briefing, China’s Foreign Ministry
By ELLEN TORDESILLAS IF the reason for the cancellation of the supposedly Sept. 3 visit of President Aquino to China was because the Chinese government set conditions that would be inimical to Philippine interest, and Aquino rejected it, why wasn’t he the one who cancelled the visit? Remember, it was China who gave notice
By ELLEN TORDESILLAS MANY , including high-ranking Philippine officials, like to think that increased presence of American military in the Philippines, which is a subject of talks between the two countries starting today, is a commitment by the Americans to defend the Philippines in case of an armed conflict in the West Philippine Sea,
By JOHNNA VILLAVIRAY GIOLAGON Photos by MARIO IGNACIO SOME 500 Filipinos staged a protest rally in front of the Chinese consulate Wednesday in Makati to express outrage over what has been described as China’s creeping invasion of waters west of the Philippine archipelago. Nobody in the consulate, which was closed for “security reasons” met with
