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 Fishermen prepare their boats along the coast of Zambales, Luzon, 4 hours from the capital of Manila on April 4, 2019. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/File 

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6 Catholic bishops urge PH gov't to protect fishers, defend territory

Rowegie Abanto

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:950px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/20190404-zambales-fishermen-JC-4295.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt=" Fishermen prepare their boats along the coast of Zambales, Luzon, 4 hours from the capital of Manila on April 4, 2019. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/File "/><span class="fr-inner"> Fishermen prepare their boats along the coast of Zambales, Luzon, 4 hours from the capital of Manila on April 4, 2019.<em> Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/File</em></span></span></span></div><div><br/></div><p>MANILA — Six Catholic dioceses with fishing communities near the West Philippine Sea urged the government to defend the rights of Filipino fishers and the country&#x27;s territory against Chinese aggression.</p><p>In a joint pastoral exhortation led by Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, former president of the Catholic Bishops&#x27; Conference of the Philippines, the bishops criticized Beijing&#x27;s incursions into Philippine waters and alleged bullying that brought maritime destruction and forced fishers to risk their lives to get a catch.</p><p>Villegas was joined by bishops Bartolome Santos Jr. of Iba, Zambales; Daniel Presto of San Fernando de La Union; Socrates Mesiona of Puerto Princesa; Broderick Pabillo of Taytay; and Auxiliary Bishop Fidelis Layog of Lingayen-Dagupan.</p><p>The prelates said &quot;words are not enough&quot; to address China&#x27;s hostility and that &quot;all legal means must be exhausted&quot; to protect the country&#x27;s maritime zones.</p><p>&quot;If present diplomatic endeavors do not suffice,&quot; they continued, &quot;then it is permissible - morally necessary even - to have recourse to the friendship of allies who can help us defend what is ours!&quot;</p><p>Despite their call for tougher actions on Beijing, they urged authorities to &quot;seek peace&quot; and said that waging a war with China &quot;cannot be a moral option.&quot;</p><p>The Philippines in 2016 won against China in an arbitral ruling by the international court in The Hague, which invalidated Beijing&#x27;s nine-dash line that claimed 90 percent of the South China Sea, including the West Philippine Sea.</p><p>China refused to acknowledge that ruling and insisted on its vast claims on the disputed waterway. Beijing has recently figured in maritime encounters with Manila, especially during resupply missions by Filipinos.</p><p>The sea row has impacted the livelihood of Manila&#x27;s fisherfolk as bigger ships from Beijing allegedly shoo some of them from fishing grounds in the West Philippine Sea, including in Bajo de Masinloc off Zambales.</p><div><ivs-player data-ivs-key="e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603" data-ivs-spid="3001339" data-ivs-vid="2905882"></ivs-player></div><script src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/js/loader.js"></script><p>The bishops said &quot;appeasing Chinese aggressors is worsening the situation&quot; of Filipino fishers, who they described as &quot;one of the marginal but populous sectors&quot; of Philippine society.</p><p>The policy, they said, &quot;emboldened&quot; China &quot;to make tall tale claims.&quot;</p><p>President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in December said diplomatic efforts with China on the West Philippine Sea row were heading in a &quot;poor direction&quot; and that a &quot;<a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/12/19/23/marcos-paradigm-shift-needed-on-west-philippine-sea-issue">paradigm shift</a>&quot; was needed.</p><p>&quot;We have to do something [that] we have not done before. We have to come up with a new concept, a new principle, a new idea so that we move, as I say, we move the needle the other way,&quot; he said of tensions in the South China Sea.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/01/15/24/philippines-to-develop-islands-in-west-philippine-sea-military-chief" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Philippines to develop islands in West Philippine Sea: military chief</a></div>

<p>Six Catholic dioceses with fishing communities near the West Philippine Sea urged the government to defend the rights of Filipino fishers. </p>

Six Catholic dioceses with fishing communities near the West Philippine Sea urged the government to defend the rights of Filipino fishers.

6 bishops urge gov't: Protect fishers, defend territory

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6 bishops urge gov't: Protect fishers, defend territory

Rowegie Abanto,

ABS-CBN News

Published February 06, 2024 01:23 PM PHT

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Catholic bishops

West Philippine Sea

South China Sea

pastoral exhortation

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