Arya News - In his fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Marcos said there is a collective threat facing the country, directed against Filipinos’ dignity and self-respect.
MANILA – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has called out racist attacks against Filipinos, saying that aside from being a “noble, kind, gracious and great race,” Filipinos are dignified and do not yield.
In his fifth State of the Nation Address (Sona), Marcos said there is a collective threat facing the country, directed against Filipinos’ dignity and self-respect.
However, Marcos said that Filipinos must remind their neighbors that they are a noble race and would also not yield to external threats.
“Of late, our very humanity has been called into question. Let me remind our friends and our detractors: Filipinos are a noble, kind, gracious, and great race. We are not greedy. We are not racists. We are not liars,” Marcos said.
“We are respectful, and we are dignified. We are Filipinos, and we do not yield,” he added.
Marcos did not mention directly who the threat was, but he made references to the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruling in 2016, which awarded the Philippines exclusive rights over the West Philippine Sea (WPS) — and junking China’s nine-dash line claim for having no historical and legal basis.
According to the President, the PCA award is a “definite benchmark” for the interpretation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).
“Just recently, we celebrated the tenth anniversary of the final and binding 2016 Arbitral Award, which stands as a definite benchmark for the interpretation and application of the Unclos. This is not a claim that we advance alone, nor one that we will abandon,” Marcos said.
“Your government will do all that is necessary to continue upholding this Award, utilizing every peaceful and legal means available to the Republic against any attempt, foreign or domestic, to undermine this achievement,” he added.
Marcos also heaped praises for the country’s uniformed personnel doing their share in protecting the country’s territory — reiterating that the Philippines, as mentioned in the national anthem, will not be conquered.
“We give honor to our Armed Forces, the Coast Guard, and even our fisherfolk, who all continue to patrol and ply our seas, in the face of great risks. To them we owe collective gratitude and appreciation for they give life to the letter and spirit of the Arbitral Award,” he said.
“My fellow Filipinos, with these threats to our security, inside and outside our country, let us stand with our heads high and hands held together […] In the face of insults, we will not falter. Before conquerors, we will not be defeated,” he added in Filipino.
Tensions between China and the Philippines are high again after China Daily, an English-language newspaper supposedly under the control of the Chinese government, uploaded on July 16 a racist video which depicted Filipinos as monkeys.
The video showed a monkey wearing a barong and a traditional Filipino hat while holding a microphone — which lawmakers said show both how high China thinks of itself, and Beijing’s frustration and insecurity as Manila has not relented on its claim over the WPS.
Just days after, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) reported that members of the Chinese Coast Guard assaulted a Philippine Navy personnel during a confrontation at Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal.
AFP said that a CCG rigid hull inflatable boat (RHIB) with eight personnel, coming from vessel CCGV 21560, unlawfully approached within close range of the BRP Sierra Madre at Ayungin. It circled and took photos and videos, prompting two AFP rubber boats “to calmly and non‑confrontationally drive it away.”
However, the military said the situation escalated when CCG personnel “reacted violently and aggressively” by striking a Philippine Navy personnel on the head with a wooden baton, causing an injury and damaging the Navy rubber boat.
The Navy personnel were stationed at BRP Sierra Madre, the Navy vessel which has been deliberately beached at Ayungin shoal.
Ayungin Shoal is well within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile, or 370-kilometer, exclusive economic zone. /jpv
Read More:
TRANSCRIPT: President Marcos’ 5th State of the Nation Address (Part 1)
TRANSCRIPT: President Marcos’ 5th State of the Nation Address (Part 2)
Family not spared from corruption fight: Philippine President Marcos