“We Must do More” Than Protest: Philippine President Seeks Tougher Stance on China

By Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News

Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is signaling the country may take a tougher stance against China regarding those violent confrontations in the South China Sea.

On Thursday, Marcos said that Manila should go beyond filing diplomatic protests with Beijing. That comes after the Philippines foreign ministry said it had sent a written protest to China following the latest incident, in which the Chinese coast guard used bladed weapons to prevent Filipino forces from resupplying a small unit on a shoal in the South China Sea that both countries claim as their own.

Marcos told reporters that the Philippines has already sent a number of protests to China.

“We have over a hundred protests already. We have already made a similar number of demarche (the formal name for a protest delivered through diplomatic channels),” Marcos said. “So we have to do more than just that.”

Marcos didn’t say what “more” could mean.

He did echo previous statements from Philippine officials that China’s actions did not constitute an armed attack, which in theory could trigger action under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty with the US. The day after the incident, the State Department made a point of saying the pact “extends to armed attacks on Philippine armed forces, public vessels or aircraft – including those of its coast guard – anywhere in the South China Sea.”

Marcos said that an earlier statement from a Philippine official describing the confrontation as a misunderstanding or an accident was premature.