Malacañang on Monday shrugged off China’s recent comment that the Philippines was trying to draw the world’s sympathy through deception in the dispute over territories in the South China Sea.
“It is part of the dynamics of international relations to conduct information campaigns or to propagate a national policy by utilizing the mass media as a channel of communication. So we are not unduly perturbed by this action,” Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a news briefing.
He issued the statement after Beijing claimed before the United Nations that the root cause of the dispute in the South China Sea was the Philippines’ illegal occupation of the disputed islands.
It also said that the Philippines “trying to win international sympathy and support through deception.”