Blinken reassurance of US help lauded

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference at the US embassy in Beijing on April 26, 2024. WANG Zhao / AFP

A LAWMAKER at the House of Representatives welcomed the assurance of United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the US will help the Philippines in case China attacks any Philippine public vessel, aircraft, or tools in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

Blinken met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday and agreed to “avoid miscalculations” by continuing their dialogue on the issues of conflict, especially those involving the WPS.

Blinken also said that while Washington will continue to deescalate tensions, their defense commitments to the Philippines remain ironclad.

Cagayan de Oro 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez welcomed the assurance of Blinken, which he said was a “reiteration” of the commitment made by President Joe Biden to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during their highly successful trilateral summit together with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last April 11 in Washington, D.C.

Rodriguez added that China should prove it is true to its word by stopping its frequent intrusions in the West Philippine Sea and within the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Philippines.

“That is the only way Beijing can avoid miscalculation with the US, which is treaty-obligated to defend the Philippines. That also means that China will have to give up the sea features inside the Philippines’ EEZ that it has occupied, one of two of which Beijing has militarized,” Rodriguez said.

He said that China should also abandon its claims on the Scarborough Shoal, or Bajo de Masinloc, which it seized in 2012, and stop harassing resupply missions to BRP Sierra Madre, the country’s military outpost in Ayungin Shoal off Palawan.

Both Scarborough and Ayungin Shoals are less than 300 kilometers away from Zambales, Pangasinan, and Palawan — well within the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, while they are 700 to more than 1,000 kilometers from the nearest Chinese island of Hainan.

Rodriguez said that the two areas are within the country’s EEZ under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas, and the Chinese claim of the islands “defies logic.”

“Beijing has to stop its intrusions into our EEZ, including the WPS, and its harassment of our troops and fishermen to avoid a possible miscalculation with the US,” Rodriguez said.