Leader warns of armed response to protect sea wealth

MANILA — The Philippine president says he has no intention of going into war over territorial feuds but will order the navy to fire if other countries extract resources from waters within his country’s exclusive economic zone.

President Rodrigo Duterte told a news conference late Friday that the Philippines will continue talks with China over disputed South China Sea territories. He also stressed the Philippines’ sovereign rights over Benham Rise, a vast offshore area off his country’s northeast.

“But just the same, we cannot fight America, just like China. I’ll just keep quiet,” Duterte said. “But if you get something there from the economic zone, I will order the navy to fire.”

Duterte was referring to the country’s 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone, a stretch of sea where coastal states have been granted exclusive rights to exploit natural resources under a 1982 U.N. treaty. Foreign ships could pass through those waters but could not fish or extract oil and gas from the under the seabed.

There were no immediate comments from U.S. or Chinese embassy officials.

Duterte recently ordered an end to all foreign scientific research missions in Benham, which his government has renamed Philippine Rise, and asked the navy and air force to patrol the waters. Some believe the waters could be harboring undersea gas and oil deposits aside from its rich fishing grounds.

“I’m putting notice to the world that the Philippine Rise, which we call Benham Rise, is ours ... and the economic zone is ours,” Duterte said.

Benham Rise, which faces the Pacific Ocean, encompasses the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone and continental shelf further out in the ocean.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said Tuesday that all foreign scientific groups, including from China, Japan, South Korea and the United States, have concluded their research work in the waters and Duterte wanted future research missions to be done by Filipinos.

Critics have questioned why the Duterte administration allowed a group from China to undertake scientific research in the waters given Manila’s longsimmering territorial conflict with Beijing in the South China Sea. China has also defied and refuses to comply with an international arbitration ruling that invalidated its claim in virtually all of the South China Sea on historical grounds.