Yasay: China will be the loser if continues to ignore arbitral decision

Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said that if China will be the loser if it continues not to acknowledge the arbitral tribunal against the claims in the West Philippines Sea. He said they are trying to make China comprehend so things will be on a clearer perspective.

Further, Yasay said that there will be no talks with China unless the talks will be within the conditions of the framework of the arbitral tribunal. The Hague decision in July is still being ignored by China to date. However, Yasay made it clear that the Philippines will only engage in peaceful and diplomatic actions and will stay clear of violent reactions; he added that maximum tolerance will be practiced.
Yasay said, they want to make sure of the safety of the Filipino fishermen which are the most affected of the disputes.

While our fishermen respects Chinese and Vietnamese fishing grounds China claims most of the South China Sea. It has reclaimed reefs and built airstrips capable of hosting military equipment, sparking anger from competing claimants led by Vietnam and the Philippines. This is the reason why the Philippines want to have finality on the issue so both countries will have a win win situation.

Meanwhile, China’s behavior in the sea have gotten criticism from the US and says that they will seek to make sure that freedom of navigation in the waterways will not be abused or hindered from.

Source: Inquirer

DFA: New hi-tech passport, 5 days to release

Manila: Presidential Communications Office (PCO) announced that the new passports with added security features, which will be delivered in a shorter period of time from the production facility to the DFA, would be available starting Monday, Sec. Andanar announced.

It will have the “all new high-security features” placed, such as upgraded security microchip to capture the personal data of the applicant, invisible UV fluorescent ink and thread plus more elaborate designs when subjected to UV light and contains patterns that would promote regions of the country. An intaglio printing, used for printing “money” and “Coat of Arms” is used, providing an optical illusion ink where color varies at different angles. Also, Philippine eagle and turtle are among the distinguishable designs that can be noticed.

Increased production People who wish to go to other countries are assured that the new passports would be readily available due to the fact that the APO unit, an agency supervised by the PCO, was able to increase the production by 35%. This means that the usual average of 7- 14 days of making passports from the press to the DFA office will now be reduced to just 5 days.

This is the objective of the PCO to further improve the printing processes and cut the delivery period of passports from the APO Lima plant in Batangas to the DFA office within 4 days by next year, (2017) according to Sec. Andanar. This is all good news to the Filipino people.

Source: Philstar