{"id":129817,"date":"2017-11-09T05:06:48","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T10:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=129817"},"modified":"2017-11-09T05:06:48","modified_gmt":"2017-11-09T10:06:48","slug":"rody-to-ask-china-do-you-want-control-of-south-china-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/11\/09\/rody-to-ask-china-do-you-want-control-of-south-china-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Rody to ask China: Do you want control of South China Sea?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: The president added that during the meeting with Xi, he would be frank and will assert the country\u2019s rights in discoursing over the maritime dispute. (RICHARD MADELO\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ahead of possible meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping at APEC summit, President Rodrigo Duterte said he will question China if it plans to control the South China Sea amidst reports that the country continues to construct facilities in some of the disputed islands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not take it against China. But what are the stakes? Do you want control of the passage?\u201d Duterte said in a press briefing at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) before leaving for Vietnam to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.<\/p>\n

Duterte and Xi is set to hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of the APEC summit.<\/p>\n

The president added that during the meeting with Xi, he would be frank and will assert the country\u2019s rights in discoursing over the maritime dispute.<\/p>\n

Duterte also said that the Philippines and China are \u201cfriends\u201d, however, he said China\u2019s plans should be clear as these could affect the country and the entire region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are friends with China. May utang na loob tayo <\/em>[We have a debt of gratitude]. At one moment in our life or the lives of the Filipinos, they were there to give us the arms when we had none and we were fighting it out in Marawi,\u201d Duterte added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about time that ASEAN countries, not really to confront, but to make clear to us what China really wants,\u201d he also said.<\/p>\n

Although the president pointed out that it not good to confront China over the nautical conflict, he said he wants those questions answered \u201cfor the sake of my country and the others who have overlapping claims.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is, if I could only confront China or if it is China alone \u2013 that\u2019s the problem. But I said, there are contesting countries which have overlapping jurisdictions,\u201d the President said.<\/p>\n

Duterte repeated that if he will engage China, he will have to engage all the other claimants in the disputed waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if I engage China now, I will have to engage the five others. It would be something like a scramble there because if China concedes to one, Philippines, it has to concede to the others,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what will now happen to our general claim of being the economic zone belonging to my country? That\u2019s a problem,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Yet, Duterte believed that the issue should be raised in bilateral meetings at a regional assembly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should be bringing this important matter to the surface,\u201d the President said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ahead of possible meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping at APEC summit, President Rodrigo Duterte said he will question China …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":129822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,16,95],"tags":[8535,420,18581,21200,13135,1039,1911],"class_list":["post-129817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-apec-summit","tag-china","tag-chinese-president-xi-jinping","tag-ninoy-aquino-international-airport-naia","tag-president-rodrigo-duterte","tag-south-china-sea","tag-vietnam","mauthors-carlo-jacob-molina","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}