By Charissa Luci-Atienza

Former Speaker and outgoing Quezon City Rep. Feliciano Belmonte Jr. cited Saturday the need for the Philippines to forge partnership with Vietnam and other claimant countries, to address China’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea.

The chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs branded as unfortunate the ramming and sinking of F/B Gim-Ver1 last June 9 by a Chinese ship.

“The territorial dispute, we already won the Hague decision but not recognized by China. Obviously we cannot do much militarily so we should ally with those countries having the same issues with China like Vietnam,” he said in an interview.

Belmonte was part of the high-level delegation of executive and legislative officials to The Hague in 2015.

The July 2016 landmark unanimous ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, United Nations arbitral tribunal based in The Hague, Netherlands, rejected China’s historic nine-dash line.

Apart from the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have overlapping claims to parts of the potentially resource-rich disputed islands, while China and Taiwan fully claim the West Philippine Sea.

When asked about the President Duterte’s silence on the issue, Belmonte said, “Malacanang supported the diplomatic protest.”

For his part, Anakpawis party-list Rep. Ariel “Ka Ayik” Casilao lambasted the Duterte government’s subservience to China.

“President Duterte should always keep in mind, that this is a serious crime, an attempted mass killing of Filipino fishermen by a foreign invader, and his non-condemnation or silence is abandonment and treachery,” he said in a statement.

He branded as “dubious and delusory” China’s alibi on the sinking the F/B Gim-Ver1 and attempted mass killing of 22 Filipino fishermen.

“As our own government sows confusion by raising that the perpetrators may not be Chinese, the Chinese government itself is carrying out its mass deception campaign by fabricating alibis to an oppressive act, which is on the line of its policy of taking control over the Recto Bank. We urge the freedom-loving Filipinos to resist and condemn this attempt to mislead us,” he said.

According to the Chinese embassy, there was no “hit-and-run” and the perpetrator Chinese vessel attempted to rescue the victims, but decided not to, in fear of being besieged by other Filipinos from other fishing boats.

The captain of the F/B Gim-Ver1 belied such claim, asserting that they were alone at the site and they were saved by a passing Vietnamese fishing vessel about five nautical miles away, when they rowed towards its direction.

“While we are already flooded with fake or counterfeit Chinese products, here they are now sowing a fake justification for its oppressive act,” Casilao said.

He said obviously, China wanted to take control of the Recto Bank, which is an underwater reef formation that is estimated to hold 5.4 billion barrels of oil and 55.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to a US energy agency.

“With China having this ultimate goal, the ramming of the Filipino fishing vessel is part and parcel of its taking control and it is not an ordinary collision, it is a grim warning to keep Filipinos away from the area,” Casilao said.