News Roundup 10 April 2024
Apr 10, 2024 • 5 min Read
US says ‘very, very concerned’ about Chinese actions in West Philippine Sea | PHILSTAR.COM – SYDNEY, Australia — The top US military officer in the Pacific on Tuesday said Washington was “very, very concerned” about Beijing’s recent “dangerous” actions in the disputed South China Sea, after confrontations with Philippine vessels.
Speaking in Sydney, United States Indo-Pacific Command head Admiral John Aquilino referenced recent encounters between Chinese and Philippine boats around a remote shoal in the Spratly Islands.
“I’m very concerned about what’s happening at the Second Thomas Shoal”, said Aquilino. “I’m very, very concerned about the direction it’s going.”
Since the 1990s, China has sought to exert control over a swathe of the southwest Pacific, bringing tense standoffs with many neighbours who claim various islands, atolls, reefs and shoals for their own.
The last month has seen two collisions near the Second Thomas Shoal between vessels from China and the Philippines, and Chinese ships blasting water cannon at Philippine boats.
Both countries claim rights over the area — which sits at a vital resource-rich maritime crossroads for regional trade.
The United States, a treaty ally of the Philippines, has led a chorus of support for the Southeast Asian country in response to China’s actions.
Aquilino said Tuesday that China’s “unilateral” actions were “dangerous, illegal and they are destabilizing the region”.
Full Story at: US says ‘very, very concerned’ about Chinese actions in West Philippine Sea | Philstar.com
Metro Manila LGUs to implement 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. working hours to ease traffic | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — The Metro Manila Council, through MMDA Resolution 24-08 Series of 2024, is now mandating all Metro Manila local government units to adjust their operating hours to an earlier time as an “innovative solution” against rush hour congestion.
Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairperson Don Artes announced the modified working hour schedule at a townhall meeting on traffic concerns with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday morning.
“All government offices under the Local Government Units located in the National Capital Region shall adopt a modified working schedule from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.,” read the MMDA resolution.
“In the implementation thereof, the local government units located in the [NCR] are hereby enjoined to enact their respective ordinances.”
This was done as the traditional 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. working hours in government offices currently coincide with the standard working hours of private companies, thereby “contributing to traffic congestion in Metro Manila.”
The new working hours will be implemented despite Artes himself acknowledging on Wednesday that the primary cause of traffic congestion is the increasing number of vehicle purchases.
“National Government Agencies located in the [NCR] are strongly encouraged to adopt modified working schedule from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.,” the resolution read.
Full Story at: Metro Manila LGUs to implement 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. working hours to ease traffic | Philstar.com
No answer yet from Duterte camp on ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with China | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. stressed that the camp of former President Rodrigo Duterte still has not given a “straight answer” regarding the so-called gentleman’s agreement between the Philippines and China.
The alleged pact between the two countries supposedly maintains the status quo in the disputed West Philippine Sea.
“We’re talking to his former officials. Maybe not the president himself, but all his former officials. Tinatanong namin, ‘Ano ba ‘yan?’ Ipaliwanag niyo naman sa amin para alam namin yung ginagawa naman,” Marcos said in an ambush interview after the “Bagong Pilipinas Town Hall Meeting on Traffic Concern” held in San Juan City on Wednesday.
(We’re talking to his former officials. Maybe not the president himself but all his former officials. We ask, ‘What is that?’ Please explain to us so we know what is being done.)
“We still haven’t got a straight answer,” he added.
Full Story at: No answer from Duterte on ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with China (inquirer.net)
Envoy: Patience of PH on China ‘stretched to the limit’ | INQUIRER.NET – WASHINGTON, DC — The Philippines’ envoy to Washington said the country’s patience over being harassed by Beijing in its own waters has now been “stretched to the limit,” amid protests on Tuesday against China’s aggression outside the Chinese consulate in Manila.
In a television interview ahead of the Philippines’ trilateral summit on Thursday with the United States and Japan, Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez said the Marcos administration had taken a “multilateral approach” on the maritime dispute in the West Philippine Sea.
The Philippines, he said, has been generally “accepting” of the situation in its own waters, including the blockade by China at Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal since a standoff in 2012.
“We have been very patient. The Philippines’ patience has been stretched to the limit,” said Romualdez.
‘Enough is enough’
“What President Marcos is doing is simply saying, ‘Enough is enough. We are going to talk to you seriously. We are not here because we want to have a conflict. We are not here because we are looking for a fight.’ We are the ones that are being aggressively bullied,” he added.
“We need to have some kind of muscle, for lack of any other word, to be able to implement what we have said, that we would protect our territory,” Romualdez stressed.
“We can’t continue to be like this. [Some] people have this wrong notion that we just sit back and nothing will happen to us. We may wake up one day and we won’t have a country anymore,” he warned.
Full Story at: Envoy: Patience of PH on China ‘stretched to the limit’ (inquirer.net)
