South China Sea: Filipino bishops urge Manila to ‘defend what is ours’ amid Beijing’s ‘aggression’

In rare move, six Filipino bishops are urging the government to partner allies to ‘defend what is ours’ in the South China Sea amid Beijing’s ‘aggression’

While they stood with the Philippines’ fishing folk, the Catholic leaders stressed that armed conflict over the hotly-contested sea was not a ‘moral option’

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Chinese coastguard on rubber boats pass a Philippine fishing boat at the disputed Scarborough Shoal off the northwestern Philippines. The Philippines has in the past accused the Chinese coastguard of confronting its ships, including firing water cannons at them. Photo: AP

Published: 3:59pm, 6 Feb 2024Updated: 4:19pm, 6 Feb 2024

Six Filipino Catholic bishops took the rare step on Tuesday of condemning Beijing’s “aggression” in the disputed South China Sea, pressing President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s administration to team up with allies to “defend what is ours”, as maritime tensions between the two countries remained elevated.

In a joint pastoral exhortation, the bishops, who serve in regions surrounded by the resource-rich waterway, said the discord was not only about marine resources but the livelihood and future of the Philippines’ fishermen.

“A policy of appeasing the Chinese aggressors is worsening the situation of our poor fisherfolk,” they said in a statement whose signatories included Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, former president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

The prelates added the “Church stands with the fisherfolk to give voice to their fears and anxieties”.

They said it was “morally” acceptable to turn to “the friendship of allies” if diplomacy failed to yield concrete results.

“All legal means must be exhausted so that what nature has so bountifully bestowed on us may be ours and may feed generations of Filipinos yet to be born.

“And if present diplomatic efforts do not suffice, then it is permissible – morally necessary even – to have recourse to the friendship of allies who can help us defend what is ours,” the bishops said in a veiled reference to the US, with which Manila has boosted security ties and granted expanded access to its military bases.