The Philippine foreign ministry on Sunday issued a rare rebuke of officials and agencies whose public comments on China, it said, undercut the government's diplomatic approach. Per AFP, it stressed that ‘civilian authority’ directs foreign relations, while Beijing has said Manila's politicians crossed its ‘red lines’.
AFP, via Free Malaysia Today, reported that the Department of Foreign Affairs said public statements undermining government policy do more than complicate diplomats' work. It warned they could erode credibility and expose internal divisions that outsiders might exploit, without naming specific incidents.
광고 문의 · 300×250The statement was read as aimed at the national security establishment and uniformed services, which AFP says have traded sharp words with the Chinese Embassy on social media for months. The ministry acknowledged the armed services are indispensable for documenting incidents but said ‘civilian authority directs the country's international relations’.
The 2016 ruling and ‘public messaging’
The ministry said the 2016 arbitral ruling, which broadly rejected China's South China Sea claims, came through ‘rigorous legal proceedings under international law’ and not through public messaging or social media. Analyst Chester Cabalza told AFP the defence department and coast guard shape security policy while the foreign ministry handles foreign policy, so the move reasserts its role.
Friction with China forms the backdrop. AFP reports that last month several senators demanded the Chinese ambassador be expelled over a remark that China could ‘easily win’ a confrontation, and that Beijing this year barred Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro from visiting over ‘irresponsible remarks’. Beijing, for its part, accused Manila of putting up ‘multiple obstacles’ to its attendance at an ASEAN defence ministers' meeting and sent only an embassy attache.
Diplomatic channels remain open. Wang Yi urged Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro last week to rein in politicians who ‘smeared’ China; Lazaro called the call ‘frank and constructive’, with both sides stressing dialogue. Manila hosts an ASEAN summit next week, with US President Donald Trump among attendees, AFP said, and China has not announced its delegation. Both sides' accounts rest on their own statements, which this paper could not independently verify.