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Teodoro: Government studying...
of their U.S. special immigration visa application.
Some sectors and personalities, including Vice President Sara Duterte, are against the request, fearing the arrangement might worsen the situation as regards the local terrorists in some places and violate Philippine sovereignty.
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Meanwhile, Teodoro said on Monday that proposals to bring the West Philippine Sea issue before the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) have to be carefully studied first, even as he stressed that the Philippines’ rights under international law must be asserted.
Some senators have backed retired Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio’s suggestion for the government to elevate the WPS issue to the UNGA, the highest policymaking body of the UN, as China continues to ignore the 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in favor of the Philippines.
Teodoro agreed that the WPS issue must be brought before the international community to reassert the rights of the country under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
(UNCLOS).
“We must bring to the consciousness of the entire world the right of the Republic of the Philippines under the UNCLOS. We really need to transfer the debate on the WPS from our country to the rest of the world so they know our cause and if this should be done through the UNGA, the DFA has to weigh on that and study the matter,” he said.
In Senate Resolution 659, Sen. Risa Hontiveros called on the Philippine government through the DFA to sponsor a resolution before the UNGA that will call on China to stop its harassment of Filipino vessels in the WPS.
“Despite the Hague ruling, China continues to harass our navy, remain hostile to our fisherfolk and put the fishing industry in the area in jeopardy. This is nothing but a constant rejection of the basic tenets of international law. Beijing’s blunt refusal to accept her legal fate should have serious consequences. The UN General Assembly should be able to tell China to behave,” Hontiveros said. (Helen Flores, Cecille Suerte Felipe) n
