'The West Philippine Sea is ours' -- this was President Duterte's declaration as he discussed his position on the contested islands and marine territories in his fourth State of the Nation Address Monday.
“The West Philippine Sea is ours” — this was President Duterte’s declaration as he discussed his position on the contested islands and marine territories in his fourth State of the Nation Address Monday.Duterte assured Filipinos that “national honor and territorial integrity” is foremost in his mind.
Duterte added that he is not “ready or inclined” to wage war with China, and would rather attack the issue in West Philippine Sea in a “peaceful way”. The President said that the government, “in due time”, will stop those fishing in the country’s exclusive economic zone .“In that meeting, I said, I want to go to my territory to dig oil because that is ours, ang sabi ni President Xi: ‘Well you know there’s a conflict there.’ [So] rather than go there and have a confrontation, not necessarily the warships, but squabble there could lead to something else’, so we just became friends,” Duterte said.
Duterte said he cannot send the marines to drive the Chinese fishermen away in the West Philippine Sea because they will not be able to come home alive. “A shooting war is grief and misery multiplier. War leaves widows and orphans in its way. I am not ready or inclined to accept occurrence of more destruction, more widows, and more orphans should war, even on a limited scale, breaks out,” he added.
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