13 June 2016.  Philippine Honorary Consul for Saxony-Anhalt, Mr. Hartmut Fromm and Dr. Inge Groth-Fromm in close cooperation with the Philippine Embassy in Berlin celebrated the 118^th Anniversary of the Proclamation of Philippine Independence with a concert featuring Filipino concert pianist Dr. Raul Sunico at the Piano Salon of the Coselpalais in Dresden.  The concert was also supported by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).

Ambassador Melita S. Sta. Maria-Thomeczek and officers and staff of the Philippine Embassy in Berlin were in attendance, along with a mixed crowd of Filipino community members, State officials and Germans from Dresden and the surrounding areas.

Dr. Sunico presented an extensive repertoire which featured works of Schumann, Chopin, Albeniz, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Chopin, Liszt, and Filipino composer, Abelardo.  The historic concert venue was built in 1762 by Julius Heinrich Schwarze. It was completely destroyed in 1945 during the second world war, and reconstructed in 2000.

Some of Germany’s most distinguished composers and pianists, including Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann and Marie Wieck, have played in the same baroque ballroom located in the Coselpalais at the Frauenkirche.

Dr. Sunico graduated from the University of the Philippines with degrees in Bachelor of Music (cum laude), Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, and Master of Statistics. A scholarship through the Young Artists Foundation of the Philippines enabled him to obtain a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School in New York and a Doctor of Philosophy degree, Major in Piano Performance from the New York University.  He is concurrently the President of the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the Dean of the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music.  END

13 June 2016.  In celebration of the Philippine Independence Day, simultaneous flag ceremonies took place across Germany at the Philippine Embassy in Berlin, the Philippine Consulate General in Essen and the Philippine Consulate in Dresden.  Due to the rainy weather, no actual raising of the flag was done in the 3 capitals; instead, the Filipino Community stood at attention before the flag inside the premises of the Embassy and Consulates and sang the Philippine National Anthem. Representatives from the Embassy and the Consulates read the Philippine President`s Independence Day message.  Members of the Filipino Community were then invited to the reception hosted by each Office. END

12 June 2016.  On the occasion of the 118^th Anniversary of the Proclamation of Philippine Independence, a “Santa Misa Para sa Bayan” (Holy Mass for the Country) was offered in Berlin and Stuttgart.

In Berlin, the Philippine Embassy cooperated with the Filipino Catholic Community of Berlin in having a special program to mark the anniversary.  The Santa Misa held at the Heilig-Geist-Kirche in Bayernallee started with attendees singing “Lupang Hinirang” (Chosen Land), the Philippine National Anthem.  Filipino Chaplain Fr. Jun de Ocampo led the celebration and said the entire Mass in Filipino, it ended with the patriotic song, “Pilipinas Kong Mahal.”

Meanwhile, the Mass in Stuttgart was held at the Domkirche St. Eberhard.   Fr. Franz Brendle offered special prayers for the Philippines.  He acknowledged the presence of Ambassador Melita Sta. Maria-Thomeczek and Prof. Dr. Gerhard Zeidler, Philippine Honorary Consul General for Baden Wuerttemburg. Music was provided by the Philippine Madrigal Singers (Madz).

After the Liturgical Mass, the Madz presented a one-hour program and regaled attendees with both Filipino and international songs. Their conductor, Mark Anthony Carpio, chose to end the program with a choral arrangement of The Dawn´s “Iisang Bangka” (Just One Boat) signifying unity among Filipinos in times of adversity. END

Consul General Donna M. Rodriguez delivered President Benigno S. Aquino´s Independence Day message before the community.  Filipinos and their German spouses filled the church to capacity and celebrated Philippine Independence day in solidarity.

A salu-salo at the church hall followed after the Mass courtesy of the Philippine Embassy wherein Filipino food took center stage.

English Translation

Borrowed Plumes: Melita S. Sta. Maria-Thomeczek

For Right instead of Might in the South China Sea

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 10.06.16, Page 8

The Philippines did not take the decision to go to arbitration lightly. The decision was taken after numerous dialogues with China at the bilateral and multilateral level did not yield fruitful results. China’s massive land-reclamation and island construction activities have led to the destruction of the marine environment and accelerated over the past few years. In many instances Chinese maritime vessels have harassed our fishing vessels and drove them away from the fishing grounds of their ancestors, depriving them of their means of livelihood. Therewith, China wants to enforce a change in the regional status quo, underlining its “undisputed sovereignty” over nearly the entire South China Sea. The decision to go to court was taken fully cognizant of the possible consequences and repercussions such an action would take. We were aware of the prospect of going against the second largest economy in the world and a rising military power.

My colleague, the Chinese Ambassador, expressed in an opinion piece in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) last 21^st May that the arbitration case brought by the Philippines against China was a “political farce, disguised with a tiny judicial cloak.”  It labeled the Philippines as trying to “lie”. Insinuating that the US “Pivot to Asia” was the true cause of the increased tension within the region the Ambassador ignored the numerous provocative moves his own country has made.

The Chinese Ambassador’s assertion that “the unilateral appeal of an arbitration tribunal violates the agreement between China and the Philippines that was already concluded in bilateral documents and which states that bilateral negotiations are to solve disputes in connection with the South China Sea” is not true. There has never been any agreement between the Philippines and China to resolve the dispute in the South China Sea through direct bilateral negotiation. The Philippines is fully aware that there being multiple claimants/parties in the dispute, no “agreement” reached between two parties would hold water without the participation and consent of the other parties involved in the dispute. The dispute is a multilateral concern and needs a multilateral solution. Second, the Chinese Ambassador argued that the Philippine decision to seek arbitration went against Articles 280 and 281 of UNCLOS. This is clearly not the case as the Philippines has not agreed with China to limit itself to any single method of conflict resolution with respect to the dispute in the South China Sea.

Furthermore, the Arbitral Tribunal itself stated, in its Award on Jurisdiction and Admissibility, that “the 2002 China–ASEAN Declaration on Conduct of the Parties in the South China Sea, the joint statements of the Parties referred to in paragraphs 231 to 232 of this Award, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, and the Convention on Biological Diversity, do not preclude recourse to the compulsory dispute settlement procedures (according to Articles 281 or 282, Section 2 of Part XV of the Convention).”

Third, the Philippines is fully aware of the reservations China has made with respect to the exclusion of maritime boundary delimitations from its acceptance of compulsory dispute settlement procedures under UNCLOS. This is why our legal team has been very careful in crafting our submissions before the Arbitral Tribunal. We have clearly stated that we are not asking the Tribunal to delimit any maritime boundaries. We are only seeking clarifications on the maritime entitlements of the two countries with respect to the South China Sea.

Fourth, the Philippines and China have had more than 50 bilateral talks at various levels since the 2012 stand-off in the Bajo Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal).

The Arbitral Tribunal, based on the submissions presented by the Philippines, and making an award on jurisdiction and admissibility, found “that the Parties have exchanged views as required by Article 283 of the Convention”.  This belies the Chinese Ambassador’s statement that China and the Philippines never held substantial negotiations on the claims made by the Philippines.

Awaiting the final ruling of the Arbitral Tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration within the next few months, the Philippines maintains its belief that arbitration is a peaceful, non-violent, and internationally acceptable legal recourse in response to China’s unilaterally aggressive actions in pursuit of its excessive claim over virtually the whole of the South China Sea, which is in gross violation of the 1982 UNCLOS.

We have sought recourse to international law precisely because we did not want the dispute to lead to an outbreak of war. We have placed our faith and our confidence in a rules-based regime that was designed to give voice to even small countries like ours with no military might. We have committed, as a responsible member of the international community, to fully respect the ruling of the Arbitral Tribunal. We have every confidence that the international community of responsible nations, including China, will have the same respect for any decision reached by the Tribunal.

The author is the Philippine Ambassador to Germany.