MANILA – Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr. on Thursday said it is "time to come clean" on who ordered and why the country pulled out its ships during the Scarborough Shoal standoff with China in 2012.
"First I demand a complete verifiable factual explanation of why they withdrew our fighting ship from the face-off with Chinese warship(s)—or just fishing vessels—from Scarborough. All it takes is a shot across the bow to have settled that dispute in the time-honored fashion," he said on Twitter.
In a series of tweets, Locsin said President Rodrigo Duterte did not give away an inch of the country's territory in the West Philippine Sea, but a lot has been lost during the previous administration.
"Walang pinamigay ni Duterte pero maraming nawala nila (Nothing was given away by Duterte but a lot has been lost under them)," he wrote.
"Is it fair to blame this President for your failure of nerve under the previous president? First own up to your failure then make your demand on this President to do what you did not ask PNoy (former President Benigno Aquino III): to fight all-out for what was always ours. Hague just recognized that fact and right," he said.
Former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario previously explained that the United States brokered an agreement with China for the withdrawal of all ships on both sides back then but Chinese President Xi Jinping "deceitfully breached" the deal.
"We withdrew while Beijing did not. Until now, China refuses to withdraw its vessels to the prejudice of the Filipino people," he said on May 4.
Locsin's statement came a day after Duterte challenged former Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio to a debate on the West Philippine Sea.
Duterte said he had these questions to Carpio: Who ordered the withdrawal and can Manila enforce the arbitral ruling the country won.
"Mga dalawa, tatlong tanong lang ako. Sino ang nagpa-retreat? At anong ginawa ninyo after sa retreat? Nag-file ng kaso. Ngayon nanalo. Ma-enforce ba natin? Matulungan ba ninyo ako kung sabihin ninyo sa Amerikano, sabihin ninyo sa France, sabihin ninyo sa Britain, samahan ninyo kami kasi papasok kami (I only have two or three questions. Who ordered them to retreat? What was done after that? We filed a case and we won. Can we enforce this? Are we going to get help if we ask America, France, Great Britain to back us up)?" Duterte said in his taped public address.
On Thursday, Carpio said he accepted Duterte's invitation but clarified that he was "never involved" in the decision to withdraw the Philippine Navy ships from the West Philippine Sea in 2012.
"I was serving in the Supreme Court at that time and all I knew about the withdrawal of Philippine Navy ships was what I read in the newspapers," he said.
"On President Duterte's challenge to debate with me on the West Philippine Sea issue: I gladly accept the challenge anytime at the President's convenience," he added. (PNA)
