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Expert: Aquino gambles national sovereignty

CCTV.com

05-18-2016 12:50 BJT

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Rod Kapunan, a columnist with the Philippines' daily newspaper The Standard, said in an interview with CCTV, that President Aquino has put the Filipinos in great danger by filing the arbitration case.

"President Aquino gambled in our national sovereignty and pride. He exploited the so called national sentiment, or blind jingoism, which is not good. Many Filipinos will be sacrificed for a war, which if you'll have to look back, it's a kind of war that was initiated by the Aquino administration, was not initiated by China. That's my position. There's no way we can win in that case," Kapunan said.

Kapunan says whatever the result, the Philippines will lose opportunities to cooperate with China and huge potential economic benefits. Kapunan believes that US's motivation to support the Philippines in escalating tensions in South China Sea is to strengthen its military presence in the region. Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has been left with a thorny legacy.

"But even the succeeding administration will have difficulty in changing our foreign policy course. Because the act alone of filing a case is something that carries with it a repercussion. It will assault in a national humiliation to withdraw the case. And that's why Duterte will think about it, he will slowly pull that out, I hope he will pull that out. It will bring us to nowhere, something like we only end up in a conflict with China," Kapunan said.

 

 

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