NSC Asst. Dir. Gen. Jonathan Malaya | The Source - video Dailymotion

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President Bongbong Marcos convenes the security cluster and orders an investigation into the collisions of Chinese ships and Philippine vessels in the West Philippine Sea.   The government files a fresh protest against China and summons its envoy to explain.   And later, lawmakers seek the passage of the Maritime Zones bill seen to push foreign nations to comply with Philippine laws in its territorial waters.   National Security Council Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya joins us in the program.  Visit our website for more #NewsYouCanTrust: https://www.cnnphilippines.com/  Follow our social media pages:  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CNNPhilippines • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cnnphilippines/ • Twitter: https://twitter.com/cnnphilippines

Transcript

00:00 Welcome to The Source, where we combine the headlines with in-depth conversations with

00:06 the newsmakers themselves. I'm Pinky Webb. Today on the program, President Bongbong Marcos

00:12 convenes the security cluster and orders an investigation into the collisions of Chinese

00:18 ships and Philippine vessels in the West Philippine Sea. The government files a fresh protest

00:24 against China and summons its envoy to explain. And later, lawmakers seek the passage of the

00:31 Maritime Zones Bill, seen to push foreign nations to comply with Philippine laws in

00:37 its territorial waters. National Security Council Assistant Director General Jonathan

00:42 Malaya joins us in the program.

00:45 President Bongbong Marcos convened the government's top security officials to give guidance to

01:00 agencies dealing with the new wave of Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea. He

01:05 ordered the Coast Guard to conduct an investigation into the collisions of Chinese ships and Philippine

01:11 vessels in the West Philippine Sea. The results are expected by the end of the week. Let's

01:16 go straight to the source of the story. We have National Security Council Assistant Director

01:20 General Jonathan Malaya. Sir, good morning. Welcome to The Source, sir. Thank you so much

01:25 for your time.

01:26 Thank you, Pinky. Thank you for having me.

01:29 So the president held a command conference yesterday. I believe it was around the same

01:33 time that you, together with three other officials of the National Task Force on the West Philippine

01:38 Sea, also held a press conference. So obviously, sir, you were not part of the command conference,

01:44 but Secretary Anya was there. Did he share any information with you, sir?

01:50 Well, I knew that there was going to be a command conference. It started at around 8.30

01:56 in the morning. In our press con, it was around 9.30. And then immediately after the press

02:04 con, I had a brief conversation with NSA Anya about what happened in Malacanang.

02:11 Tell us more about that. What can you share?

02:15 Well, what I can share right now is that the security cluster, including the president,

02:23 is taking this event that happened last Sunday, which is the collision between two Philippine

02:31 vessels with Chinese vessels, very seriously. And in fact, they are considering taking more

02:40 resolute steps to respond to this increased provocation and increased aggression coming

02:47 from the People's Republic of China. So as you said in your report, the president has

02:53 directed the Philippine Coast Guard to conduct a thorough maritime investigation to dispute

03:01 the Chinese narrative, to dispute the position coming from China. And I would presume immediately

03:08 after that report is submitted to the president, another cabinet cluster meeting will be called

03:15 to discuss future steps in response to this increased provocation.

03:19 A number of questions with what you said. Just to follow up, when you say more resolute

03:24 steps, what are these steps? What are these options?

03:29 Yes. Unfortunately, Pinky, because of national security concerns, we cannot share those to

03:37 the public right now. We cannot telegraph our moves to China. Beijing does not telegraph

03:42 their moves to the Philippines. So why should we, considering this is CNN, I'm sure they're

03:48 monitoring us right now. So I cannot share those, but I was told that it's a more resolute

03:55 response in reply to the increased provocations by Chinese vessels to our road mission for

04:03 Yung Shu.

04:04 Fair enough, sir. However, when you say more resolute response, this is obviously going

04:11 to go beyond summoning the Chinese envoy, filing diplomatic protests. Not that that's

04:19 not important, but it means it's going to go beyond those. Some steps that we've actually

04:25 seen in the past. These are actions we've seen in the past over and over again.

04:30 Well, to be fair to the Philippine government, this is just the second time that, well, the

04:36 third time, sorry, that we have summoned the Chinese ambassador under this administration.

04:41 So the decision to summon the Chinese ambassador is not a decision taken lightly. It is only

04:47 done during increased provocation or high tensions with the Chinese counterparts, with

04:53 the Chinese side. So, well, we can perhaps speculate that whatever steps that will be

05:02 taken by the Philippine government moving forward will be something new and not, as

05:06 you said, the usual response that we do whenever we have such incidents at sea.

05:12 I hope you understand, sir, not that I'm taking that lightly at all, but I guess what I'm

05:20 trying to say, as mentioned a while ago, this has been, these actions have been done in

05:25 the past. For example, as you mentioned, thank you for that clarification, that the Chinese

05:29 envoy Wang Zhilian has been summoned, you said, three times. You said three times. This

05:37 since President Marcos took office. So we're talking about the Chinese envoy being called

05:42 three times in, what, sir, 16 months?

05:48 Yes. And, you know, calling the Chinese envoy is not a run of the mill decision. It is a

05:57 strong statement coming from the Philippine government that we protest, that we are condemning

06:06 strongly and we don't just want to send a note to you or a paper to you. We want you

06:11 to hear it from us directly. So that was the message that we sent. But as I was told, there

06:20 will be future actions that will be undertaken by the cabinet and by the president. But we

06:25 have to wait for the proper time when this is shared to the public.

06:30 Right. The Chinese ambassador to the Philippines, however, was not present when summoned and

06:35 he sent his deputy. Isn't that correct, sir?

06:39 Yes. He was out of the country. So the deputy chief of mission was the one who represented

06:45 the Chinese embassy.

06:47 Any information on the kind of exchange that happened during that time when the representative

06:54 of the Chinese envoy was called?

06:57 Well, unfortunately, I do not know. Yesterday, I was beside Ambassador Tess Lazzaro at the

07:05 National Security Council, and I did ask her what was the response of the Chinese side.

07:10 But at that time, she also did not know. And we have not been in contact since yesterday's

07:15 press conference.

07:16 Yeah. You're talking about the DFA spokesperson, sir, you mean?

07:22 Yes. Ambassador Tess Daza. I got my officials mixed up.

07:30 I know. So yeah, you were beside, the four of you were there. DFA spokesperson, Ambassador

07:36 Tess Daza, yourself, sir, the spokesperson of the National Task Force on the West Philippine

07:42 Sea, Commodore J. Tariella, and the spokesperson of the AFP is also Colonel Medel Aguilar,

07:52 the four of you were present in yesterday's press conference.

07:56 Before I go to that, because there's a number of questions I want to ask, too, although

07:59 I do understand you gave a detailed, all of you gave a detailed account of what happened

08:06 last Saturday night till Sunday.

08:08 Secretary Gibut Yudoro said yesterday, I believe right after the command conference or during,

08:15 that what happened was a blatant violation of international law. China has no legal right

08:21 or authority to conduct law enforcement on our territorial waters and EEZ. And as he

08:27 mentioned a while ago, he did say that the government is taking this incident seriously.

08:35 You said more resolute actions. I guess the question really is, is why we cannot publicize

08:43 what the government plans to do. I still go back to the question, sir, of the UNCLOS.

08:50 Is there no way to be able to push China to comply with international laws?

09:00 You know, unfortunately under our system, the global system right now, there is no international

09:04 police. And the compliance with international law is dependent on the adherence of member

09:13 states to its compliance, adherence of member states. So whenever we are asked, why aren't

09:20 we implementing the 2016 arbitral ruling? We are, the Philippines is implementing the

09:26 2016 arbitral ruling by continuing to support our fishermen by acting in the manner that

09:32 the arbitral ruling requires us to do, which is supporting our fishermen with food and

09:38 supplies so that they can fish freely in the West Philippine Sea, sending regular maritime

09:44 patrols through the Coast Guard and the Philippine Navy, continuing to supply our troops despite

09:50 overwhelming odds. These are our ways of implementing the 2016 arbitral ruling.

09:57 Now we are also happy and glad that the Senate is now rushing the passage of the Maritime

10:04 Zones Bill and hopefully very soon the Archipelagic Zones Bill because these two laws implement

10:13 the 2016 arbitral ruling into domestic law. It's important that the decision of the arbitral

10:20 tribunal are reaffirmed and implemented by the Philippines through domestic legislation.

10:26 So all of these actions are what is required from the Philippines to implement our laws.

10:32 Now as to international compliance, we are happy that the United States, EU, many other

10:39 countries support the Philippine position and are in fact conducting freedom of navigation

10:45 flights and movements in the entire South China Sea. Because remember Pinky, the claim

10:52 of China is not just the West Philippine Sea, it is across the entire length of the South

10:59 China Sea. And when our allies, partners and friends conduct their freedom of navigation

11:06 movements in the entire South China Sea, including the West Philippines, they are in fact supporting

11:11 the Philippines.

11:12 Right. That needs to be discussed further though because I know that there's no police

11:18 force. We may have won the arbitral ruling but the question always was who will enforce

11:29 this? As you mentioned, we enforce it in our way. The problem is it is not recognized by

11:34 the Chinese government. We have a right to exercise our rights. We have a right to exercise

11:39 our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We

11:42 have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of

11:46 navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to

11:50 exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation.

11:51 We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our

11:52 freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have

11:53 a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of

11:54 navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to

11:55 exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation.

11:56 We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom

11:57 of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right

12:22 to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation.

12:51 We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our

13:19 freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have

13:48 a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of

14:14 navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to

14:43 exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation.

15:09 We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our

15:29 freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have

15:51 a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of

16:20 navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to

16:46 exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation.

17:16 We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our

17:35 freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have

18:00 a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of

18:30 navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to

18:45 exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation.

19:06 We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our

19:27 freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have

19:55 a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of

20:16 navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to

20:45 exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation.

21:11 We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our

21:32 freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have

22:01 a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of

22:29 navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to

22:58 exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation.

23:27 We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our

23:56 freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have

24:25 a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of

24:53 navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to

24:58 exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation.

25:02 We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our

25:06 freedom of navigation. We have a right to exercise our freedom of navigation. We have a right

NSC Asst. Dir. Gen. Jonathan Malaya | The Source

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