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00:00Meanwhile, we will continue with the incident in Bajo de Masinlo where a Chinese Navy helicopter and B-4 airplane was stuck and crashed this Tuesday.
00:09We will be joined by Undersecretary Alexander Lopez, spokesperson of the National Maritime Council.
00:14Usec Lopez, good morning.
00:16Good morning Ivan and hello.
00:22Yes, this is Ivan Mayrena.
00:24Good morning Ivan and to our listeners this morning.
00:29Usec, did the National Maritime Council already talk about the latest incident of a Chinese helicopter being stuck?
00:35Did we already have a diplomatic protest about this?
00:38Basically, the National Maritime Council is periodically meeting.
00:44For this particular incident, we just informed our chairman, Executive Secretary Bersamin about the incident.
00:57Of course, members of the council like the Secretary of National Defense, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, they are well-informed.
01:05So with that, we came up with the statement about the incident.
01:14About the diplomatic protest, the Department of Foreign Affairs said they will be filing a diplomatic protest.
01:22That's just a process. They will just be coming up with reports coming from the cognizant agencies, units.
01:31When they finish their report, they will conduct a diplomatic protest after that.
01:39Usec, incidents like this, aggressive action, dangerous maneuvers, are becoming almost like a regular occurrence
01:49in the area of our Exclusive Economic Zone.
01:52Aside from the diplomatic protests, what else can the National Maritime Council do to respond to these incidents?
02:00Actually, we are expecting that.
02:06Actually, even the worst scenario, it's already in our radar.
02:14We are expecting that because these are the things they are doing on their part to assert their place.
02:23For us, the international law is very clear. The 26th Arbitral Ruling is very clear.
02:33It's ours. They have no right to it. Everything they do there is illegal.
02:39So what we're saying, are we going to address it?
02:49Actually, the diplomatic protest is one very good tool because we have to put on record all their illegal activities
02:59so the United Nations can know that they are afraid that hundreds of our diplomatic protests have already happened.
03:13At least, put on the record that.
03:16We are doing this and the international community can see who is in the wrong place.
03:28Yousef, you mentioned earlier that the possibilities of the worst-case scenario are already in your radar.
03:35For example, are you referring to a mid-air collision?
03:39For example, that happened. What if something like that happened?
03:42Yes.
03:44What sort of response are we considering if this worst-case scenario that you're mentioning happens?
03:53Well, these are red lines that we mentioned to the President. These are red lines.
04:03Based on the agreement, we can come up with a more...
04:12A stronger response.
04:15Even how we do things, actually, in each incident, we learn lessons.
04:22We learn lessons and then we will adjust.
04:27What the PLA Navy helicopter did, I think it's very dangerous.
04:34For example, 3 meters.
04:37In HIPAA, there are air pockets sometimes so we don't know.
04:45The room for error of the pilot will be almost zero at 3 meters.
04:56In fact, the pilot and the commander-in-chief said when they accounted it,
05:01the helicopter above tilted a bit.
05:06It was on the left side, right?
05:09The pilot felt it.
05:11It's a good thing that the pilot was skillful.
05:15He was able to adjust right away.
05:17He saw it.
05:19When the helicopter was about to approach,
05:21he said that the challenge of the helicopter was that they were coming in too near.
05:25But they didn't respond.
05:27That's how it is.
05:29Reckless, very reckless.
05:31The President and the Council have mentioned several times that we should not respond with violence and provocative actions.
05:43But in the event of the red line, the line that they shouldn't cross,
05:54Are the actions of the United Nations and other international authorities included in the options to resolve this?
06:02Well, those will be the stronger options of our government.
06:09Again, we have activated and calibrated actions, graduated.
06:19We know that.
06:21Our President's guidance is that we will never be the ones to do the provocative actions.
06:28We will always go to the peaceful means in resolving disputes,
06:33and we will always go through the diplomatic channels and mechanisms to resolve all these disputes.
06:39Usec, thank you very much for accepting our call this morning.
06:44Thank you very much Ivan.
06:46We talked to Undersecretary Alexander Lopez, the spokesperson of the National Maritime Council.
