EXTERNAL INFLUENCE | Ex-DFA chief says China had ‘influenced’ 2016 elections to help Duterte win

July 12, 2021 , 05:44 PM

By Beatrice Puente, News5 Digital

(July 12, 2021) – China had played a role in helping President Rodrigo Duterte win the 2016 presidential elections, a former foreign affairs secretary said, warning foreign powers are meddling in the country’s political affairs to influence foreign policy.

Albert del Rosario, who also served as Philippine ambassador to the United Nations under the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, said China’s role in the presidential elections was revealed by a “reliable international entity”. Del Rosario was the foreign secretary under the previous administration and was instrumental in filing an arbitration case against China in 2013.

Del Rosario said he was not surprised why the president showed a “disturbing pattern of loyalty” to Beijing in the last five years. Although he had promised an independent foreign policy, his actions showed his closeness to China, heaping praises on Xi Jinping.

“On February 22, 2019, we received information from a most reliable international entity that high officials from China are bragging that they had been able to influence the 2016 Philippine elections so that Duterte would be president,” Del Rosario told a virtual forum.

“We believe that our Beijing post can easily validate this. Moreover, subsequent actions of the President lend more credence to this information.”

Del Rosario, who led the country’s team that won an arbitral case against China before The Hague, blamed Duterte’s “compromised loyalty” for failing to defend the country’s sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea. The tribunal issued a ruling exactly five years ago today.

Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, defended his boss and called del Rosario “a traitor” for ordering coast guard vessels to withdraw from Scarborough shoal and leaving China’s vessels to control the area.

“Kalokohan po ‘yan coming from a proven traitor,” Roque said. “Mr. Del Rosario, if you want to talk about who the real traitor is, ikaw ‘yun. Ikaw ang namigay ng teritoryo sa Tsina at ikaw, habang hindi ka makapagpakita ng teritoryong ibinigay ni Presidente Duterte sa ibang bansa, manahimik ka d’yan.”

Roque also accused former Supreme Court associate justice Antonio Carpio of the same thing but the ex-magistrate denied such claims.

In a landmark ruling, the arbitration court nullified China’s excessive claims over almost the entire South China Sea using the historical “nine-dash line” claim. It violates the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which says the waters located up to 200 nautical miles from a country’s shores fall under their exclusive economic zone.

China refused to honor the ruling as it continues to show aggressive behavior against other countries that have conflicting claims over the South China Sea, namely Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Over $3 trillion worth of seaborne trade passes by this strategic waterway annually.

Earlier this year, China also deployed hundreds of fishing and militia vessels over the Spratly Islands and neighboring areas in the West Philippine Sea, ignoring multiple diplomatic protests filed by the country’s foreign affairs department.

Duterte has remained soft and friendly with China, saying the country’s inferior armed forces are a no match against Beijing’s military might.

But Del Rosario said the president’s actions constitute “betrayal of the Constitution” worsened by his close ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“It is certainly disturbing to see our President—who should be looking after his own people—relying on a foreign leader for his security of tenure as President. Moreover, such foreign leader represents an aggressor that is openly and illegally occupying land and waters that belong to the Filipino people,” Del Rosario said.

“Through these acts, many Filipinos have reason to believe that our President has been discrediting our nation. For the last five years, what we see is a betrayal of the Filipino people.”

(MM)

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