Good evening to the adjudicators and to my colleagues .

The topic
for this debate is that the proposed joint exploration of the contested
islands in the West Philippine Sea between China and the Philippines is a
good idea. We the negative team believe that this statement is false.

So, Today I will be talking to you about why a joint exploration of the
contested islands in the west philippine sea between China and the
Philippines is a bad idea.

To my first point, China cannot be trusted! How could our country

trust China if it cannot even respect our National territory. The disputed
territories are part of our Exclusive Economic Zone where we have special
rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources found in that
zone. Not respecting a nation’s territory is very disrespectful. Another is
they don't recognize rights! our country has exclusive right over the
resources that will be found in the EEZ it is only exclusive to the Filipino
people. They don't even recognize the ruling of the international court.
They are very disrespectful, let me remind you China is a member state of
the United nations. Let me say that again the United nations! And yet it
wont recognize its authority over them. As you could see they don't have
integrity! How sure are we that China will cooperate with this agreement?
Let me remind you that we brought a case against China to the
international arbitration because of its occupation of our maritime
territories inside the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone of the
Philippines. Also, let me remind you that coast guard of China harassed our
fishermen preventing them to exploit resources which is rightfully ours. So
Why enter an agreement with them?

In rebuttal to the 2nd affirmative speaker which is my second point in

this speech. China’s claim is sovereignty, while our country’s claim is
maritime rights under the UNCLOs. we are on the losing end in granting
this joint exploration with China because it is like we are conceding our
maritime rights over them. This joint exploration is an indirect tolerance of
our submission to China’s demands. Also, the natural resources are owned
by the state and such shared ownership is depriving the Philippines of its
natural resources which should only be enjoyed by the Filipino People.
 Now to my third and final point, The exclusive economic zone is
called exclusive because it is exclusive to the coastal state of the
Philippines. That's why we cannot have joint development with another
country because international law and national law said it's exclusive. As
mentioned earlier by my colleague. Why do you want to share what is
exclusively yours? Instead of giving in to the demands of China. What we
should do is ask other countries which have the technology to help us
develop it but they will only be our contractors. We pay them for their
technology. We can pay them in cash or in kind but you don't give up your
sovereign rights over this. It is sacred. And you cannot do that, you cannot
give up those sovereign rights because the Constitution prohibits that. No
one should give it up! I quote as said in the movie of Heneral Luna “Bayan
o Negosyo”. We should always chose our country's sovereignty and we
should not give it up!

So ladies and gentlemen I leave this quote from Hamilton Fish, “If our
country is worth dying for in time of war, let us resolve that it is truly worth
living for in time of peace. ” thank you.

As mentioned by the 2nd affirmative speaker he said that…. This is

wrong because….