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Palace not sure if barring media from S. China Sea is official Beijing policy

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Dharel Placido, ABS-CBN News

MANILA - Malacañang will not yet take concrete steps or make any pronouncements after Chinese coastguard personnel barred a Filipino media team from covering a portion of the West Philippine Sea that is well within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.A Palace spokesman said Monday it will first have to validate if the ban on Philippine media is an official policy of Beijing.Observers have been urging the Duterte government to lodge a protest against China after Chinese coast guard men recently blocked a team from news network GMA-7 planning to conduct interviews at the Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal).But Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said an investigation must first be made by the foreign affairs department before any steps can be taken by the government. He also urged the media team involved to file a complaint that will be coursed through the proper channels.“Is it a policy of China to prohibit mediamen from going there or not? We don’t know that yet,” Panelo said in a Palace press briefing.“You have to give us a letter complaint expressing your concern so that we can act appropriately. We will refer you to DFA and the DFA will write the government of China whether or not there is such a policy.”Panelo said there is a need to clarify whether the Chinese policy comes from the top. The recent barring of the GMA team, however, is not the first incident where a group of reporters, Filipino or foreigner, was confronted by Chinese troops in the hotly contested sea.Asked whether the Chinese act was violative of the Philippines’ rights in its very own front yard, Panelo said, “We don’t know if it was just their Chinese coastguard making threats.”Nonetheless, he said “anything that is violative of our rights as a nation, anything that violates the rights of our citizens, we will always find it objectionable.”“If that is really their policy, [DFA Secretary Teodoro] Locsin will take care of that. That’s his turf.”Panelo said he already relayed the concerns about the incident to Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua and the latter said any complaint should be formally made.He also underscored the need to continue holding talks with China and other Southeast Asian nations for the crafting of a code that will government the behavior of claimant states to the strategic sea lane.“The problem is they feel that they own that place eh. They are showing that they own it. They are making prohibitions on certain acts,” Panelo said. “The President said, let’s have self restraint. First is we craft the code of conduct.”The Philippines in 2016 defeated China in a United Nations-backed arbitral tribunal, which invalidated Beijing’s economic claim to the strategic sea lane.President Rodrigo Duterte, however, has chosen to set aside the ruling in exchange for better economic ties with Asia’s largest economy.China has ignored the ruling and insists it has sovereignty over the waters. Duterte, meanwhile, has raised little opposition to China’s continued military activities in the area.Duterte had said that despite his government’s rapprochement with China, he would never surrender the country’s claims to the sea and would bring up Manila’s arbitration victory against Beijing at the appropriate time.

Malacañang will not yet take concrete steps or make any pronouncements after Chinese coastguard personnel barred a Filipino media team from covering a portion of the West Philippine Sea that is well within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.

Malacañang will not yet take concrete steps or make any pronouncements after Chinese coastguard personnel barred a Filipino media team from covering a portion of the West Philippine Sea that is well within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.

Palace not sure if barring media from S. China Sea is official Beijing policy

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Palace not sure if barring media from S. China Sea is official Beijing policy

Dharel Placido,

ABS-CBN News

Published Nov 26, 2018 04:39 PM PHT

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South China Sea

West Philippine Sea

Malacañang

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