Marcos: China’s sanctions on Teodoro ‘unhelpful’

VANCOUVER, Canada – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Saturday, July 4, that Beijing’s decision to sanction Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. was “unhelpful” because it “raises the level of tension rather than lessens” it, as Manila seeks to “reset” ties with its northern neighbor.

“The declaration of Beijing of Secretary Teodoro, as persona non grata, I guess, in China… it’s just not. It’s very unhelpful, in my view. Because it really achieves very little. It’s more a… how do you say, a response to some of the things that he, some of the pronouncements that he’s made in a foreign forum. But it does not move the discussion between the Philippines and China regarding the territorial conflicts that we have. It does not move that process forward in any way,” Marcos said at a press conference following his official visit to Canada.

On June 11, China announced it had imposed sanctions on Teodoro, his wife, and their son. The sanctions bar the Teodoro family from entering mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau, and prohibit them from conducting transactions with individuals and entities in China.

Teodoro, one of the Philippine government’s most outspoken critics of China, has brushed off the sanctions.

Marcos earlier said he hopes to “reset” ties with China, more than three years since he made a state visit to Beijing in early 2023 and after years of heightened tensions between the two countries over maritime disputes. 

China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, including areas within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and maritime features also claimed by other countries, including the Philippines. For maritime agencies and Filipino fisherfolk, those claims have translated into repeated harassment and, at times, physical injury in waters Manila refers to as the West Philippine Sea.

Since 2023, Manila has publicized incidents of harassment by Chinese vessels and aircraft through official government releases and media embeds aboard Philippine missions. The incidents have involved assets of the China Coast Guard (CCG) and the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).

“It does not make it easier. It does not lessen the risk of a mistake or some kind of skirmish that could grow into something more,” said Marcos. 

The most dramatic of “mistakes” took place almost a year ago, when a PLAN and CCG vessel collided off the waters of Scarborough Shoal (Bajo de Masinloc) as they both tried to chase down a much-smaller Philippine Coast Guard ship. 

In June 2024, the China Coast Guard confronted Philippine troops during a resupply mission to BRP Sierra Madre, the Philippine Navy ship deliberately grounded in 1999 to serve as Manila’s outpost in the West Philippine Sea. A Filipino sailor lost a thumb during the confrontation, while Chinese personnel damaged Philippine equipment.

“I guess it is of course… it’s China’s prerogative to do whatever it is they please but in the largest scheme of things in my view it it it raises the level of tension rather than lessons which is always what we want and that’s why we continue to have open lines of communications with Beijing,” added Marcos. 

“Cutting off another line of communication, which is through our defense ministries… I do not see how it will help that process that we’re trying to achieve to manage the tensions in the West Philippine Sea to lessen the likelihood of something happening that will be a trigger for something worse,” he added.

Marcos also admitted he was “worried” that the country’s maritime and West Philippine Sea policy could change after 2028, when his term ends.

“It’s almost, not quite, but it’s almost an existential issue for us,” he said. 

“I think the rightness in our positioning, in terms of the way we position the Philippines in our foreign policy vis-à-vis the arbitral agreement, arbitral award is validated by countries like Canada who support it and see it as simply an enforcement of international law and the defense of our territorial integrity and the exercise of our sovereign rights within our sovereign territory,” he added. 

In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney reaffirmed Ottawa’s support for international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 2016 Arbitral Award.

Canada is among the countries that have been most vocal in backing the Philippines’ maritime policy, particularly in the face of China’s expansive claims.

Beijing does not recognize the 2016 Award, which deemed its historical claim invalid.  – Rappler.com