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Marcos Jr says not to compromise on territorial disputes
"I will not preside over any process that will abandon even a square inch of territory of the Republic of the Philippines to any foreign power," Marcos said in his first State of the Nation Address delivered before Congress.
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Incoming Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr (left) and outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte (center) take part in the inauguration ceremony for Marcos at the Malacanang presidential palace grounds in Manila on June 30, 2022. The son of the Philippines' late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was to be sworn in as president on June 30, completing a decades-long effort to restore the clan to the country's highest office. (AFP/Francis R. Malasig)
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hilippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Monday said his government will not compromise when tackling territorial disputes, though he did not single out China amid his country's tense relations with Beijing over claims in the South China Sea.
"I will not preside over any process that will abandon even a square inch of territory of the Republic of the Philippines to any foreign power," Marcos said in his first State of the Nation Address delivered before Congress.
Marcos, son and namesake of the late Philippine dictator, was sworn in on June 30, succeeding Rodrigo Duterte. The administration of Duterte was seen as friendly toward China despite the ongoing territorial dispute.
He also touched on energy policy and said his government aims to promote nuclear power to lower electricity costs.
But instead of reviving a 38-year-old completed but never fueled nuclear power plant in the northern province of Bataan, Marcos said he is keen on building and tapping small-scale modular nuclear reactors, calling them the "new technologies" of atomic power.
"We will comply, of course, with the International Atomic Energy Agency regulations for nuclear power plants as they have been strengthened after Fukushima," he said, referring to the 2011 nuclear disaster in Japan.
