A study on the building of a bridge that will connect Negros Occidental to Panay is in its early stages, Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said.

Lacierda, who was in Bacolod yesterday with Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte, said the study is being conducted because of a push from Western Visayas solons for bridges to connect the WV islands.

It is being conducted by the Public Private Partnership Center, he said.

The study will determine the feasibility of the project, but there is no decision at the moment on whether such a bridge will be built, he also said.

Meanwhile, the Philippines will maintain its sovereignty over what it owns, “What is ours is ours.”

This was the reaction of Lacierda to Senator Ralph Recto who is urging Malacañang to seriously consider engaging China, not through diplomatic protests, but through a possible joint exploration agreement in the Spratlys Islands.

"With every stand-off, the territorial tension only escalates and we're not gaining anything - zero. We could pursue a different tack by working out a possible joint exploration without impinging on our sovereignty," Recto said in a press statement yesterday.

Recto said the change in tack could be adopted in the wake of another escalation of tension in South China Sea over suspected Chinese poachers in Scarborough Shoal, who got a "save" from responding Chinese military vessels.

Lacierda said the area in the Scarborough Shoal is within Philippine territory and it is part of the country’s exclusive economic zone that it has sovereign rights to.

“What is our is ours, what is theirs, we will respect,” he said.

He said the Philippines had Coast Guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources vessels in the area, but the president decided to pull out the Navy’s vessel in the area to lower the tension in the Scarborough Shoal .

The matter has been brought to the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea, of which the Philippines and China are members, he said.

There is no reason for us not to avail of the international body to decide on the issue, he also said.*CPG

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