By Deighton Acuin and Archie Villaflores

PHOTO: Sporting Life

“Sa akin, nakukulangan ako, nakukulangan ako kumpara doon sa bago pa siya tumakbo, nage-eleksyon pa lang. Dapat ipatuloy niya yun para magkaroon din naman tayo ng respeto [galing sa China].”

This was what Senator Manny Pacquiao had to say on the recent statements made by President Rodrigo Duterte on China’s incursions in the West Philippine Sea. 

“Nakakapanghina dahil iba kasi yan doon sa simula,” Pacquiao said in an online interview.

Pacquiao recalled Duterte’s 2016 presidential election promise that he would have a jet ski ride to Spratly Islands to put a Philippine flag to assert the country’s territorial rights.
 
“Narinig natin bago mag-election, sa pangangampanya, nung sinabi niya na mag-jet ski siya, dala yung watawat ng Pilipinas doon, e siyempre, kahit ako sa puso ko, ito na yung iboboto ko dahil ito yung dapat na presidente, kailangan natin, na pinaglalaban yung bansa natin,” Pacquiao furthered. 

“Tapos ito na, ito na yung crucial na pangyayari ngayon,” the lawmaker added.

However, as Duterte has been receiving fierce criticisms, Malacañang repeatedly defended the chief executive, saying that his “utang na loob” remark does not mean that the government will give up its sovereignty on the West Philippine Sea.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has been filing a series of diplomatic protests over the presence of Chinese vessels on parts of the contested islands.


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