Speakers’ Bureau

PVP Roy Golez was speaker at the Maritime Forum held last January 19, 2018 at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Pasay City. He expressed alarm over the decision to allow China to coduct maritime research in the Benham Rise. He said the Philippines should not allow China to survey the Benham Rise. Chinese research ship Kexue is listed as part of the Chinese Navy. His discoveries on the matter include the following:

1. China is illegally occupying & claiming our West Ph Sea, and IMHO lusting for more seas.

2. Benham Rise is rich in fish resources & China apparently lusting for food.

3. Benham Rise is rich in energy (methane hydrates, gas) and China apparently is lusting for energy.

4. Benham Rise has strategic importance, a good area for submarine channels which an oceanographic survey can reveal. PLA submarines can hide in those channels constituting a threat to the security of the Philippines and our allies in the Western Pacific.

Golez got information that “Kexue”, the Chinese research ship, assigned to Benham Rise, is jointly owned by PLA Navy or China Navy. “Type 625C, named as Science (Kexue,) is “manned by a mixed crew of civilian and naval crew” because this is “jointly owned by PLAN and civilian governmental agencies.” Please note that it is listed as part of the PLAN Fleet (China Navy). In his humble opinion, the survey to be conducted in the Benham Rise will be a Naval survey in support of China’s military objectives in the Western Pacific.

Ex-national security adviser warns vs China in PH telecoms

ABS-CBN News Posted at Jan 23 2018 02:09 PM | Updated as of Jan 23 2018 02:32 PM

MANILA - Giving China a stake in telecommunications in the Philippines will give Beijing a potential weapon against Manila should relations sour, a former national security adviser said Tuesday.

Communications is the most important aspect of security, as it can reveal “maybe 100 percent of you,” said former congressman Roilo Golez, who served under the Arroyo cabinet.

“China is potentially still our adversary because they have a claim on our West Philippine Sea. They’re claiming about 90 percent so there’s a possibility in the future that they may become a physical enemy and they have a big part of our communication system,” Golez said.

“The government can instruct their representatives here. They don’t have to infiltrate, it’s already built in,” he told ANC’s Headstart.

PVP Roy Golez was interviewed by DZRH and Catholic Media Network last January 22, 2018. Both interviews tackled the Scarborough Shoal conflict between China and the USA with the deployment near the shoal of a US destroyer. Philippine Government’s stand is to stay out of the US-China Intramural while his stand is that the Philippines must protest China’s claim because our country has sovereignty over the Scarborough Shoal. Republic Act No. 9522 provides that Scarborough Shoal is Philippine Territory. The Philippines’ silence may be interpreted as acquiescence.

The said law signed last March 10, 2009 by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo provides as follows: “Section 2. The baseline in the following areas over which the Philippines likewise exercises sovereignty and jurisdiction shall be determined as “Regime of Islands” under the Republic of the Philippines consistent with Article 121 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS): a) The Kalayaan Island Group as constituted under Presidential Decree No. 1596; and b) Bajo de Masinloc, also known as Scarborough Shoal.”