Duterte says Philippines on "best level of friendship" with China

[TaiShang]

Duterte says Philippines on "best level of friendship" with China
(Xinhua) 09:57, March 30, 2017

Rodrigo Duterte (File photo)


MANILA, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Wednesday that his country is on its "best level of friendship" with China.

Duterte, in a speech in Oriental Mindoro, an agricultural province in northern part of the country, said he has made the right decision to be friendly with China.

"I think I made the correct decision," he said, citing that the Philippine exports of bananas and pineapples to Beijing are "back at full normal, 100 percent."

He urged the Filipino farmers to grasp the opportunity so that their produce could be exported to China.

The president said that the increase of Philippine exports was to the credit of Chinese leader, "also the Chinese people, (as) they are really good. They are faithful friends."

"We are at our best level of friendship with China after I went there," he said, referring to his visit to China in October last year.

The president has said he would return to China in May to attend a Belt and Road summit in Beijing.

 

[Nan Yang]

Where are those posters that always says that aggressive China pushing SEA countries into the arms of US ?

He he he They have been silenced.

Now US lecturing Singapore on unlimited free speech may even push Singapore into China's orbit.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/25/asia/singapore-amos-yee-us-asylum/

 

[TaiShang]

Where are those posters that always says that aggressive China pushing SEA countries into the arms of US ?

He he he They have been silenced.

Now US lecturing Singapore on unlimited free speech may even push Singapore into China's orbit.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/25/asia/singapore-amos-yee-us-asylum/

I think, over the past four-five years, in layman's terms that the Western media likes to use, the US pushed more countries into China's arms than vice versa.

 

[ahojunk]

Philippines, China restore direct talks to discuss security, trade issues
(Xinhua) 08:23, April 05, 2017

MANILA, April 4 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines and China have re-established direct talks for the first time in six years to discuss security and trade issues, the Philippines' top diplomat said Tuesday.

Philippine Acting Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo said the biggest fruit of President Rodrigo Duterte's visit to Beijing in October last year was the re-opening of the lines that pave the way for direct consultations between the two countries.

"I think one of the benefits that have arisen from the president's visit last October is that we have restored various mechanisms to talk to China, not only on trade but also on political and security issues," Manalo told a forum in Manila.

"The key here is how to talk, how to settle or how to manage tensions in a peaceful way," Manalo said.

He said bilateral talks are the key because dialogue and cooperation will foster peace and prosperity in the region.

The Philippines and China are in talks to establish a bilateral consultation mechanism on the South China Sea.

Manalo said that the mechanism will provide the Philippines and China a good forum to have frank exchanges on vital issues.

"We're discussing with China in the context of trying to improve our relationship," he said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said last week that China is willing to strengthen dialogue with the Philippines to properly manage and control divergences and advance maritime cooperation to create a favorable atmosphere for pragmatic cooperation as well as the sound and stable development of ties.

 

[Russell]

South China Sea: Duterte orders Philippines military to occupy islands


Hong Kong (CNN)Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said Thursday he has ordered military personnel to occupy all Philippines-claimed islands in the disputed South China Sea.

"We tried to be friends with everybody but we have to maintain our jurisdiction now, at least the areas under our control. And I have ordered the armed forces to occupy all these," he said during a visit to a military camp on the Philippines island of Palawan.
Duterte said he may raise the Philippines flag on Pagasa Island, also known as Thitu Island, on the country's independence day on June 12.
Thitu is in the Spratly island chain, parts of which are claimed by the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam.

Building up
The Philippines has traditionally been a forceful claimant in the territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
Under Duterte's predecessor, Benigno Aquino, Manila won a landmark case at an international tribunal in the Hague, which ruled China had no legal basis for the bulk of its claims in the waters.
Duterte's administration has been cozying up to Beijing since his election last year, andterritorial disputes have been pushed to the background.
In a visit to the Chinese capital in October, Duterte said to Chinese President Xi Jinping that "America has lost now. I've realigned myself in your ideological flow."
Following his visit, Beijing agreed to allow Philippines fishing ships access to China-controlled territory.
"By cozying up to China and trash-talking America, Duterte has achieved something that Washington couldn't deliver: a peaceful resolution to the Scarborough Shoal standoff," Ashley Townsend, a regional expert at the University of Sydney, wrote for CNN Opinion at the time.

Duterte's latest comments seem to mark a departure from his previous policy, and suggests a desire to pursue the type of militarization Beijing has been accused of bringing to the region.
"Even those, those vacant (islands) that are considered ours, let's live there," Duterte said.
"It's like we're all competing to take these islands. And what's ours now at least, let's take it and make a strong point there that this is ours."
He said the Philippines should "fortify" its territory: "(We) must build bunkers or houses there and make provisions for habitation."
Duterte has a history of making wild claims and pronouncements he does not necessarily follow up on. In December, he had to walk back a story he told about throwing someone out of a helicopter.

High stakes
While relations between Manila and Beijing may have improved, tensions in the South China Sea -- which is both resource rich and a crucial shipping route -- have remained high.
China has continued militarizing and building up the territories it controls, reclaiming land to turn sandbars into islands, and equipping them with airfields, ports and weapons systems.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has taken a firm line on Beijing's expansionism, saying in his confirmation that the Trump administration would "send China a clear signal."
"Building islands and then putting military assets on those islands is akin to Russia's taking of Crimea. Its taking of territory that others lay claim to," Tillerson said.
During a visit to Beijing however, Tillerson's tone was considerably softer, and he echoed Chinese language on the need to "expand cooperative areas and achieve win-win results."
Trump meets with Xi Thursday at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, though it is unclear whether the South China Sea issue will come up.
CNN's Janie Octia contributed reporting.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/06/asia/philippines-duterte-south-china-sea/index.html

 

[hoangsa74]

rubbish news, the PH has already stationed their troops on the spratlys for decades.

 

[dy1022]

Lol.... what happened to the Chinese claim of a new being deeper than ocean relation with Philippines!!!

LOL, IQ level of an indian..

We are looking for an excuse to do something really really big on HuangYan island (130-150KM2).

Here comes the chance, might is right, and China is the Might in China's south sea, not anyone else!!!

 

[TaiShang]

South China Sea: Duterte orders Philippines military to occupy islands


Hong Kong (CNN)Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said Thursday he has ordered military personnel to occupy all Philippines-claimed islands in the disputed South China Sea.

"We tried to be friends with everybody but we have to maintain our jurisdiction now, at least the areas under our control. And I have ordered the armed forces to occupy all these," he said during a visit to a military camp on the Philippines island of Palawan.
Duterte said he may raise the Philippines flag on Pagasa Island, also known as Thitu Island, on the country's independence day on June 12.
Thitu is in the Spratly island chain, parts of which are claimed by the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam.

Building up
The Philippines has traditionally been a forceful claimant in the territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
Under Duterte's predecessor, Benigno Aquino, Manila won a landmark case at an international tribunal in the Hague, which ruled China had no legal basis for the bulk of its claims in the waters.
Duterte's administration has been cozying up to Beijing since his election last year, andterritorial disputes have been pushed to the background.
In a visit to the Chinese capital in October, Duterte said to Chinese President Xi Jinping that "America has lost now. I've realigned myself in your ideological flow."
Following his visit, Beijing agreed to allow Philippines fishing ships access to China-controlled territory.
"By cozying up to China and trash-talking America, Duterte has achieved something that Washington couldn't deliver: a peaceful resolution to the Scarborough Shoal standoff," Ashley Townsend, a regional expert at the University of Sydney, wrote for CNN Opinion at the time.

Duterte's latest comments seem to mark a departure from his previous policy, and suggests a desire to pursue the type of militarization Beijing has been accused of bringing to the region.
"Even those, those vacant (islands) that are considered ours, let's live there," Duterte said.
"It's like we're all competing to take these islands. And what's ours now at least, let's take it and make a strong point there that this is ours."
He said the Philippines should "fortify" its territory: "(We) must build bunkers or houses there and make provisions for habitation."
Duterte has a history of making wild claims and pronouncements he does not necessarily follow up on. In December, he had to walk back a story he told about throwing someone out of a helicopter.

High stakes
While relations between Manila and Beijing may have improved, tensions in the South China Sea -- which is both resource rich and a crucial shipping route -- have remained high.
China has continued militarizing and building up the territories it controls, reclaiming land to turn sandbars into islands, and equipping them with airfields, ports and weapons systems.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has taken a firm line on Beijing's expansionism, saying in his confirmation that the Trump administration would "send China a clear signal."
"Building islands and then putting military assets on those islands is akin to Russia's taking of Crimea. Its taking of territory that others lay claim to," Tillerson said.
During a visit to Beijing however, Tillerson's tone was considerably softer, and he echoed Chinese language on the need to "expand cooperative areas and achieve win-win results."
Trump meets with Xi Thursday at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, though it is unclear whether the South China Sea issue will come up.
CNN's Janie Octia contributed reporting.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/06/asia/philippines-duterte-south-china-sea/index.html

Rubbish journalism, mixing distorted reporting with personal opinionating.

 

[Viet]

Vietnamese ships sighting in Scarborough a 'good sign', says PH envoy
ABS-CBN News
Posted at Apr 04 2017 06:30 PM

A fisherman look at the fishing boats that just returned from disputed Scarborough Shoal, as they are docked at the coastal village of Cato in Infanta, Pangasinan. Erik De Castro, Reuters/File

The sighting of Vietnamese vessels in the Scarborough Shoal is a "good sign," the Philippine ambassador to China said Tuesday.

Philippine Ambassador to China Chito Sta. Romana said fishermen's presence could only mean that part of their traditional fishing grounds have regained access to the disputed waters.

"It is supposed to be in the traditional fishing ground of the Taiwanese, the mainland Chinese, the Filipinos, and the Vietnamese, so in this sense, it is happening again," Sta. Romana said in an interview on ANC's Headstart.

"Had we known this verdict back in 2012 that it's a historical fishing ground, perhaps we should not have arrested the Chinese fishermen," Sta. Romana added.

Sta. Romana was referring to a standoff between the Philippine Navy and the Chinese coastguard in 2012, when Filipino troops tried to arrest Chinese fishermen in the shoal before being blocked by China.

An arbitration tribunal ruling in 2016 discarded China's economic claim to the Scarborough Shoal, but Filipino fishermen were only allowed to return to cast their nets in the area after President Rodrigo Duterte met with Chinese president Xi Jinping in October.

http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/04/04/...ting-in-scarborough-a-good-sign-says-ph-envoy

 

[JSCh]

Yes, it is traditional fishing ground and everybody fish there.

Until Philippine did something that change that situation a few years back.

Therefore it is only until Philippine had reverse course.

That had allowed the restoration of the status quo.

Let's hope Philippine can keep staying that course for the future.

 

[$@rJen]

LOL, IQ level of an indian..

We are looking for an excuse to do something really really big on HuangYan island (130-150KM2).

Here comes the chance, might is right, and China is the Might in China's south sea, not anyone else!!!

LOL.. . where is ur IQ level gone!!??

is that a correct reply for my quote!! or you've a comprehensive issue???

 

[Keel]

Duterte only discredits himself by his own doing the longer he stays in office. He is an extreme opportunist who has an unstable national policy that's constantly shifting

 

[Jlaw]

Duterte only discredits himself by his own doing the longer he stays in office. He is an extreme opportunist who has a unstable national policy that's constantly shifting

Sweet talker who uses empty flattering words who tricked the Chinese's leaders to give them more $$$