The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said it was “pretentious” for the President to bring up the country’s maritime conflict with China during the recent Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and not during the visit of Xi during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Manila.
“Pres. Aquino has exhibited cowardice when he made during the ASEAN meet a statement against the Chinese government for its reclamation activities in the West Philippine Sea when in fact he avoided the issue altogether when Chinese President Xi Jinping was here in the Philippines.
We see through his venue selective advocacy – his, in fact, lip service politics.” Pamalakaya Vice Chairperson Salvador France said in a statement.
France lamented that “despite China’s aggressive usurpation on our territory, the Aquino government chose not to talk about it with Xi Jinping.”
“Thousands of fisherfolk from Zambales still can’t return to their livelihoods because China has been hostile to them. Filipino fishermen were bombed by water cannons, rammed by Chinese vessels and chased them with guns to shoo them away,” he noted.
France noted that despite these aggressive acts, “the national government kept mum during the APEC summit merely so as to be a good host”.
“As lamentable is the fact that the government can’t even adequately provide means of livelihood for the affected fisherfolk whose livelihoods have been totally lost,” France said.
