Chinese Embassy in Manila refused to receive protest letter

This is a press statement from Akbayan.

Akbayan hits Chinese officials for arrogance


Photo by Reuters, originally posted at neaksre.com

Akbayan hit officials of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Manila after the latter refused to receive a protest letter regarding the People’s Liberation Army’s recent incursions in the Western Philippine Sea on Wednesday morning.

“Akbayan condemns this display of arrogance from officials of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China,” Bello said following the incident.

Bello led a group of Akbayan members to the PRC consular office at Makati City this morning to protest the military incursions the Chinese Army has been conducting in the past months. The group carried a formal protest letter that also demanded for Chinese officials to apologize for the aggression that disrespected Philippine sovereignty and violated international laws. Officials from the Embassy refused to receive the letter and instructed building security not to accept the same.

According to Bello, the actions of the Chinese officials “is consistent with the aggression that the Chinese Army has displayed in what is clearly Philippine territory.”

“A bully is what the People’s Republic of China is,” Bello explained. “They have consistently used military might to assert their claims over Philippine territory and other resources found within the Western Philippine Sea. And as we protest against their incursions, they arrogantly turn their back on us.”

Bello also said that this posed a “very grave problem” for the process of settling the conflicting claims over natural resources found in the Western Philippine Sea and adjacent waters.

“The Philippines is engaged in the peaceful process for settling the disputes in good faith that the People’s Republic of China would do the same. Malaking problema ang pagmamayabang at paghahari-harian ng China sa Western Philippine Sea para sa prosesong ito,” Bello added.

The Philippines, along with other Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states, and the People’s Republic of China signed the “Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea” in November 4, 2002 to guide the conduct on peacefully resolving disputes in the Area.

According to Bello, the Chinese government “must apologize for the unwarranted aggression” and return to diplomatic negotiations so the issue could be settled peacefully.

“We from Akbayan want to emphasize that military might and coercion will not lead to the peaceful settlement of the conflicting claims over the resources in the Western Philippine Sea,” Bello concluded. “It is through only through diplomatic negotiations where the sovereignty of all nations involved is upheld and the authority over each of our respective territories is respected that we would finally be able to resolve this dispute.”

Here is the protest letter

Protest Letter for Chinese Embassy