Philippines hindered efforts to talk, former diplomat says

The Philippines government has been behind the intensifying tensions in the South China Sea, a former diplomat for the country said on Wednesday.

"China has been for the negotiations all along, but from the beginning we are not," said Alberto Encomienda, former secretary-general of the Maritime and Ocean Affairs Center of the Philippines' Foreign Affairs Department.

Although the Foreign Affairs Department has said it conducted more than 50 consultations and negotiations with China from 1995 to 2012, those did not happen, said the diplomat, who was then in charge of the negotiations.