PHILIPPINE COAST GUARD FILE PHOTO

BEIJING — The US has played an “extremely dishonorable role” in backing the Philippines and using the South China Sea dispute to provoke relations between China and the region, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

“It is very clear to the discerning eye who the Philippines is serving in its foreign policy and for whom it is working in its maritime operations,” the agency said in response to recent remarks by Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.

China is willing to continue to work with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) including the Philippines to manage differences at sea and deepen sea-related cooperation, it said.

Mr. Marcos on Friday delivered the keynote address at a security forum in Singapore, criticizing what he described as illegal, coercive and aggressive actions by “other actors” in the South China Sea — a censure of China, although he didn’t name the country.

Meanwhile, Senator Emmanuel Joel J. Villanueva dismissed a Chinese general’s accusation that the Philippines is ruining regional peace by involving more countries in the sea dispute, saying the claim was not backed by proof.

“I don’t think anyone is paying attention to what they are doing because no one believes in their (China) circus,” he told a news briefing.

“Their narratives are ridiculous, their claims are unfounded, and we still go by our united stand that the West Philippine Sea is ours,” he added, referring to areas of the South China Sea within Manila’s exclusive economic zone.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately reply to a Viber message seeking comment.

At the Shangri-la Dialogue security summit in Singapore last week, Chinese Major General Xu Hui, commandant of the Chinese military’s International College of Defense Studies, asked Mr. Marcos if the Philippines was risking regional peace by involving other parties.

He said Manila risked ruining the “long-earned, long-lasting peace” within ASEAN.

“There is no such thing as a regional issue any longer, and when we talk about the South China Sea, we have to also remember that the South China Sea is the passageway for half of world trade,” Mr. Marcos responded. “Peace and stability in the South China Sea and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea is a world issue.”

More than $3 trillion worth of trade passes annually through the sea, which China claims almost in its entirety. A United Nations-backed tribunal in 2016 voided its claim for being illegal.

“In the end, the important thing is that we don’t give up sovereignty over those islands and oceans,” Senate President Francis “Chiz” G. Escudero separately told reporters.

“The (conflict can be resolved) through dialogue and should not lead to a war between our country and China and other countries,” he added. — John Victor D. Ordoñez with Reuters

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