Sinabi ni Pangulong Ferdinand Marcos Jr. na mahalagang manatiling pare-pareho ang posisyon ng Pilipinas sa pagpapatupad ng 2016 Arbitral Award sa West Philippine Sea, dahil isa ito sa pinakamahalagang usapin para sa bansa.
Inihayag ito ng Pangulo matapos tanungin kung nangangamba siyang maaaring magbago ang polisiya ng susunod na administrasyon at maapektuhan ang mga naging hakbang ng kasalukuyang pamahalaan sa pagpapatupad ng arbitral ruling.
“Well, of course, it’s a very important issue for the Philippines, if you’re asking me if I’m worried that the policy of the Philippines will change after I leave office, of course I am. Because it’s almost, not quite, but it’s almost an existential issue for us.
Because maybe not existential for ordinary Filipinos, but for the state of the Philippines, the Philippine Republic. So we really have to be consistent in that,” pahayag ng Pangulong Marcos.
Ayon kay Marcos, ang suporta ng Canada at iba pang mga bansa sa arbitral award ay nagpapatunay na ang paninindigan ng Pilipinas ay nakabatay sa internasyonal na batas, pagtatanggol sa teritoryal na integridad, at paggamit ng soberanong karapatan ng bansa.
Iginiit din ng Pangulo na halos walang isyung hihigit pa sa kahalagahan ng usapin sa West Philippine Sea para sa Republika ng Pilipinas.
“And I think the rightness in our positioning, in terms of the way we position the Philippines in our foreign policy, vis-à-vis the arbitral agreement, arbitral award is validated by countries like Canada who support it and see it as simply an enforcement of international law and the defense of our territorial integrity and the exercise of our sovereign rights within our sovereign territory.So it is a very enormous, there are no issues before any president that are greater than that.Some are equally important, but that is as important as anything else that we are having to deal with,” dagdag pa ng Pangulong Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
