Not the time to fight with China – Rody
The Philippines is not picking a fight with China and is holding Beijing to its word that there is no new construction in Kagitingan or Fiery Cross Reef, President Duterte said last night.
Speaking to reporters in Davao City, the President also cited a statement of his spokesman Harry Roque that the country would one day ask China to turn over to the Philippines the artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea.
Roque later said he was just joking. It was not clear if the President also said it in jest.
Duterte also promised to protect the Philippines’ 200mile exclusive economic zone, particularly in the Philippine Rise or Benham Rise in the Western Pacific, where Beijing is seeking naming rights to several seamounts and submarine ridges.
“Do not mess with my economic zone,” Duterte said.
He stressed that the conflict in the South China Sea is between China and the United States.
“This is not the time to be fighting with China,” he said.
Southeast Asian ministers earlier expressed concern about China’s construction of artificial islands and installation of military facilities in the South China Sea, where its nine-dash-line territorial claim was junked by the UN-backed Permanent Arbitration Court in 2016.
Duterte has been criticized for failing to pursue the enforcement of the court ruling, which also gave the Philippines sovereign rights over several reefs in the West Philippine Sea.
He has said he would bring up the court ruling with Beijing one day. When he raised the issue in a meeting in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping, however, the latter reportedly said his country was prepared to go to war.
Recently, Duterte received flak for allowing China to conduct research in Benham Rise. He subsequently suspended all foreign research activities in the area, but only after a Chinese vessel had completed its research.
Beijing’s application for naming rights in the Philippine Rise indicated that it had conducted research in the area as early as 2004. The results of the exploration were submitted to the International Hydrographic Organization and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.