Paga-aralan ng pamahalaan na mapalawak ang coverage ng preliminary understanding ng Pilipinas at China sa Ayungin Shoal, sa iba pang bahagi ng West Philippine Sea (WPS).
Pahayag ito ni National Maritime Council (NMC) Spokesperson Alexander Lopez, kasunod ng insidente sa Escoda Shoal kung saan nagtamo ng matinding pinsala ang dalawang barko ng Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) dahil sa aggressive maneuver’ ng Chinese Coast Guard (CCG).
Sa press briefing sa Malacañang, sinabi ng opisyal na nananatiling useful ang understanding ng dalawang bansa pagdating sa Ayungin Shoal.
Hindi lamang aniya nila inasahan na hindi ito naga-apply sa iba pang bahagi ng WPS.
“Definitely it is useful because of that understanding that we have with China, it’s just a matter of—kasi iyong understanding din was focused on the RORE missions in Ayungin Shoal. We did not expect that this thing will happen between coast guards.” —Lopez.
Dahil dito, kasama aniya sa pag-aaralan ng Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) na ma-extend ang sakop ng preliminary understanding sa buong WPS.
“Maybe that’s one area where maybe the scope of the understanding between the two countries, baka – this has been seriously studied by our Department of Foreign Affairs – baka puwedeng ma-extend in other areas in our maritime domain. That’s part of the study, whether it would merit coverage of maybe a bigger area or maybe the entire. So we leave it to the Department of Foreign Affairs because they’re the principal agent in handling these things.” —Lopez. | ulat ni Racquel Bayan
