Tag: Bongbong Marcos

‘Kill’ plot vs Marcos ‘maliciously taken out of context’ —VP Sara

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

‘Kill’ plot vs Marcos ‘maliciously taken out of context’ —VP Sara (archived)

BBM seems to be taking out his opponents from what I’ve been observing. The next presidential election is in 2028. I wonder how involved the CIA is?

Related:

Sara Duterte Exposes House Panel’s Off-Cam Confession: It’s All About Election Funds

“After that meeting with the Makabayan bloc and Martin Romualdez, they started destroying my name, pummeling me in the media with the multi million PR campaign. They even insulted me by lying that I was a traitor, a corrupt, an abusive person. Your motherfucker, who is corrupt?” she said during an online press briefing early Saturday.

“Those congressmen who are holding hearings, what do they say when the hearing is over, when the mic is off, when the media is gone- ‘Excuse me, we need money because the election is coming up. Please tell Sara, I don’t like what I’m doing,’” she said.

The country’s veep then directed her fury at Manila Rep. Joel Chua, head of the House panel probing the confidential funds use, accusing him of hypocrisy.

“You motherfucker, you don’t like what you’re doing, why are you ruining my name, Joel Chua?”

Philippines’ Aggressive Territorial Claims In South China Sea: A New Threat to Regional Stability

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed a new Navy chief (Rear Admiral Jose Ma. Ambrosio Ezpeleta) amid tensions in the South China Sea, which include a number of maritime drills which are perceived as provocations by Beijing. One such military exercise earlier this month, for instance, included drills to simulate seizing an island in the disputed South China Sea. Last month Manila held military exercises in the same Sea together with Canada, Japan, and the United States, as part of Exercise Sama Sama 2024. The Philippines are also officially expanding their maritime claims. These developments are all connected.

Philippines’ Aggressive Territorial Claims In South China Sea: A New Threat to Regional Stability (archived)

Related:

What’s Really Going On In the South China Sea Between the Philippines and China

South China Sea: Marcos inks laws on PH Maritime Zones, Archipelagic Sea Lanes + Responses of China and the United States

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
YouTube

MANILA – President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Friday signed laws declaring the maritime zones under Philippine jurisdiction and designating sea lanes in the country for foreign vessels and aircraft.

Marcos inks laws on PH Maritime Zones, Archipelagic Sea Lanes

Related:

South China Sea: Philippines’ legal moves reveal its expansionist goals

U.S. State Department On the Philippines Maritime Zones Act

Arnaud Bertrand’s Twitter thread (ThreadReader)

Regarding the South China Sea Arbitration:

The South China Sea Arbitration did not rule on sovereignty, and China does not recognize it because the Arbitral Tribunal lacked jurisdiction. “The Arbitral Tribunal violated the principle of state consent, exercised its jurisdiction ultra vires and rendered an award in disregard of the law. This is a grave violation of UNCLOS and general international law, Wang said.” The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is an international treaty that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities.  The Permanent Court of Arbitration is not an agency of the United Nations. The PCA rents space in the same building as the UN’s International Court of Justice.  A Congressional Research Service report, dated August 2023, stated that the U.S. has not declared its position regarding sovereignty over any of the geographical elements that comprise the South China Sea.  

Philippines sides with Vietnam in South China Sea dispute, hoping it will ‘return the favour’

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Analysts believe that while Vietnam appreciates the gesture, it is unlikely to influence Hanoi’s strategy in the disputed waters.

Philippines sides with Vietnam in South China Sea dispute, hoping it will ‘return the favour’

Related:

BowerGroupAsia: Dr. Prashanth Parameswaran

Prashanth is concurrently a fellow at the Wilson Center, a senior columnist at The Diplomat magazine and an instructor for institutions including the U.S. State Department. He is the founder of the twice-weekly ASEAN Wonk newsletter, which offers research insights and analysis on the geopolitics and geoeconomics of Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific region. 

Stratbase ADR Institute Non-Resident Fellow: Dr. Prashanth Parameswaran

Dr. Parameswaran has held various roles across think tanks, governments, media and companies, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Associated Press. In those capacities, he worked on various issues including geopolitical and geoeconomic statecraft, Southeast Asia foreign and security policy, regional institutions, major power engagement in the Indo-Pacific as well as alliances and partnerships.   

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Dr. Parameswaran holds a Ph.D. and MA focused on international business, international relations, Asian affairs, and U.S. foreign policy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He earned a BA from the University of Virginia, where he studied foreign affairs and peace and conflict studies with a focus on Asia. He regularly advises groups and individuals seeking to advance conversations on Indo-Pacific affairs and serves on the board of several institutions.  

Global Times: China and Vietnam capable to handle law enforcement conflict in S.China Sea properly; Philippines’ intention to stigmatize China ‘won’t work’

SeaLight document

Less politics more marine diplomacy – a fix for South China Sea?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Territorial wrangling over who owns the South China Sea has strangled local marine life, say scientists, urging China and the Philippines to set aside political differences and work to save the fish, coral and plants that live border-free.

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Since 2013, China has built artificial islands that cover more than 3,000 acres of the Spratlys, according to U.S.-based policy organisation Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative.

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A study last December by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative also blamed China’s dredging and clam harvesting for destroying almost 20,000 acres of reefs in the South China Sea.

Less politics more marine diplomacy – a fix for South China Sea?

The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) is part of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Gregory Poling is director of the AMTI. The same Poling that told the U.S. government-funded Voice of America that “Vietnam’s use of cutter suction dredgers is much more environmentally destructive than its previous dredging methods.”

According to the CIA’s World Factbook, Vietnam occupies around 50 outposts, The Philippines occupies nine, Malaysia occupies five, and China occupies seven in the disputed Spratly Islands.

Previously:

China unveils evidences showing Philippine grounded warship at Ren’ai Jiao destroys coral reefs, endangers marine organism

Experts warn of Philippines scheming for ‘new arbitration’ on South China Sea + More

Vietnamese Poachers using Cyanide and Dynamite Fishing in the Philippines’ EEZ

Philippine Coast Guard clarifies ‘assertive transparency’ tact

An open and free Indo-Pacific, or stability at home?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Source

The Voice of America, in an article about why the Quad met in Washington this week, claims that the aims of the Quad are to create an open and free Indo-Pacific. Biden, in a prepared remark, suggested his Administration believes “Xi Jinping is looking to focus on domestic economic challenges and minimise the turbulence in China’s diplomatic relationships, and he’s also looking to buy himself some diplomatic space”.

An open and free Indo-Pacific, or stability at home?