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InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA, Philippines -- Former President Fidel V. Ramos on Tuesday urged all claimants in the Spratly Islands to demilitarize as a win-win solution to ease rising tension in the disputed chain of islands believed to have rich oil deposits.
Ramos issued the call during his visit of a photo exhibit by veteran news photographer Revoli Cortez at the National Press Club (NPC) complex in Intramuros, Manila.
The pictures are selected photos of Revoli which he dubbed as “I Shot Five Presidents” spanning over 25 years as a photo-journalist of the Philippine Star and other media networks.
The photo exhibits include the presidency of Corazon C. Aquino, Fidel V. Ramos, Joseph Ejercito Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and Benigno S. Aquino III.
These highly selected photographs of four former presidents and one sitting president are a must for the people to see, free of charge at the NPC ground.
When asked about his view on the raging Spratly issue, Ramos said demilitarization must be undertaken by all claimants -– China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.
“Peace not war,” Ramos said to resolve the Spratly imbroglio.
The Spratly chain of islands in the South China Sea is also a fishing sanctuary which Ramos said must be utilized by all claimant nations.
“Certainly, there must be positive actions that China, the Philippines, Vietnam, other claimants, and the U.S. can undertake to avoid further irritants and facilitate solutions,” Ramos said.
Ramos, during his presidency, also wrestled with similar problems but “believes win-win solutions can be achieved if Asia-Pacific’s leaders and peace advocates strive patiently and unwaveringly to forge a covenant binding upon all country-stakeholders – big or otherwise.
It may be recalled that in 1995 when Ramos was still the President, China also encroached Mischief Reef but Ramos proposed the ‘freezing’ of troop strengths on disputed islets, followed by “the demilitarization of the Spratlys, and then cooperative efforts by rival claimants to assure safe shipping passage in order to preserve the maritime environment and exploit its sea/seabed resources judiciously under joint authority. “
The former President also said that “global interdependence, science/technology, and the empowerment of people (as at EDSA and the “Arab Spring”), I believe, offer us the possibility of a future world without war.
Ordinary people’s assertion of their political/human rights is making war obsolete among the great powers and, increasingly, also among others that have linked their progress to the global economy,” he added.
Tension again erupted in the Spratly following intrusion by Chinese aircraft into Philippine airspace on May 23 this year, Chinese patrol boats in the Recto (Reed) Bank off Palawan on March 2 also this year and a Chinese missile frigate’s firing at Filipino fishing boats near Palawan’s Quyirino atoll on Feb. 25 as reported by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
Ramos enumerated the benefits of reaching a harmonious multilateral agreement among all parties concerned:
• Millions of lives will be saved and destruction of communities avoided in a world without armed conflict.
• Upliftment of the world’s poor and marginalized can become a reality in our time.
• Taxpayers everywhere will be relieved of onerous and unaffordable spending for arms build-up and proliferation.
• Funds thus conserved can be redirected to healthcare, food production, education, safe habitats, environmental protection, and other needs.
• Essential public infrastructures, facilities and connectivities can be provided more readily.
• Science/technology can be applied totally to humankind’s survivability on Planet Earth which is threatened by deadly kinds of natural/man-made disasters and endemic diseases.
