Duterte says he allows Chinese vessels to fish in Philippine waters to prevent war
- In his State of the Nation address, the president says Manila ‘owns the West Philippine Sea but China controls it’, pointing to the presence of guided missiles on Chinese-made artificial islands
- The two-hour speech also saw him ask Congress to reimpose the death penalty for drug-related crimes and set up a new ministry for the welfare of overseas workers
If you want marines to drive away the Chinese fishermen, not one of them will come home alive
“We own the West Philippine Sea but China controls it. That is the reality,” Duterte said, hinting that China would have no qualms using arms. “There are already guided missiles [on China-made artificial] islands, [which] can reach Manila in seven minutes.
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“If you want marines to drive away the Chinese fishermen, not one of them will come home alive.”
“Xi says ‘I will fish’, who can prevent him? I said, ‘We will fish because we claim it’. I said, ‘Please allow’, because before that [China was] driving away our fishermen.”
The West Philippine Sea refers to the part of the South China Sea that lies off the Philippines’ west coast. Manila named the area in 2012 in a bid to delineate its sovereign territory.
Duterte also disclosed that during their first bilateral talk in October 2016, he told Xi the Philippines would undertake oil exploration activities in the EEZ.
“President Xi replied, ‘Well, you know there is a conflict there … you know a squabble there could lead to something else,” the Philippine leader said. “So we just became friends.”
As it stands, Duterte said, he “cannot even bring the coastguard to drive [China] away”.
“That is the problem. They are the ones in possession.”
Speaking to an audience of 2,000 parliamentarians, diplomats and government officials, Duterte said he blamed the previous administration of President Benigno Aquino III for “losing the Spratlys and Panganiban [or Mischief] Reef”.
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Records show that China took control of the reef during the 1992-1998 presidency of Fidel V. Ramos.
Duterte promised that national and territorial integrity was foremost in his mind, but he insisted the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) and the arbitral award won by the Philippines three years ago recognised instances in which another state was allowed to utilise resources found within another state’s EEZ. However, the Philippine Constitution expressly states that its EEZ is exclusively for Filipino fishermen.
In 2016, an arbitral tribunal in The Hague rejected Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, ruling that it ran counter to principles of Unclos, to which China is also a signatory. It also ruled that China had violated the Philippines’ sovereign rights by interfering with its fishing and petroleum exploration and constructing artificial islands in its EEZ.
After Duterte’s speech, Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio rebuffed the president’s assertion that China controls the West Philippine Sea.
“Foreign naval powers – US, Britain, France, Australia, Japan, and Canada – continuously sail and conduct naval drills in the South China Sea, including the [West Philippine Sea], demonstrating that China is not in possession of [it],” he was quoted as saying by ABS-CBN.
Duterte is seen to have taken a soft stance on Beijing during his time in office. Besides the issue of Chinese fishing vessels within the EEZ, critics have pointed to his lack of enforcement of The Hague’s ruling and his attempts to play down last month’s sunken Philippine fishing boat, saying it was “just a collision” with the Chinese ship.
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The speech, which lasted nearly two hours and ended with him singing Moon River and the Filipino love song Ikaw, or You, with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, came as Duterte enters the midpoint of his six-year term. In his address, he vowed to double down on his war on drugs and corruption, asking Congress to reimpose the death penalty for drug-related crimes and the crime of plunder.
Duterte’s rambling address also saw him ask lawmakers to lower the age of criminal responsibility, create a new ministry devoted to the welfare of overseas workers, and prioritise passing bills to lower corporate income taxes and cut back on incentives.
Earlier, some 5,000 protesters gathered outside the House of Representatives to call for Duterte’s removal, while a smaller number of pro-Duterte supporters rallied separately.
Left-wing protesters burned a mock Chinese flag and a giant mural with the images of Duterte, Xi and US President Donald Trump in initial rallies. Protests were also held in Cebu, Iloilo and Duterte’s hometown Davao City. In his speech, Duterte also vowed to “end local communist armed conflict”.
“We have had enough of this government’s ‘kill, kill, kill’ policy,” said Danilo Ramos, a left-wing leader of a farmers’ group. “The Duterte presidency is killing its constituents in so many ways.”
Additional reporting by Associated Press, Bloomberg
