{"id":153565,"date":"2018-02-20T01:55:24","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T06:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=153565"},"modified":"2018-02-20T01:55:24","modified_gmt":"2018-02-20T06:55:24","slug":"ph-wont-fight-china-rather-talk-to-them-on-civilized-terms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/02\/20\/ph-wont-fight-china-rather-talk-to-them-on-civilized-terms\/","title":{"rendered":"PH won\u2019t fight China, rather talk to them on civilized terms"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Duterte<\/a>
Duterte said that it was also \u201cunrealistic\u201d to fight China because he would not allow any of his uniformed men to die unnecessarily. (PNA photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— \u201cWhen I can talk to them, why should I fight? China is willing to talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Rodrigo R. Duterte made this remark noting that the best approach to addressing the territorial conflict with China on the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) is through \u201cdiplomatic\u201d means.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we can only be diplomatic. We can only be talking on friendly and civilized terms,\u201d Duterte said Monday night during the founding anniversary of the Chinese Filipino Business Club at the Manila Hotel.<\/p>\n

Duterte said that it was also \u201cunrealistic\u201d to fight China because he would not allow any of his uniformed men to die unnecessarily.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot go there, ride in our whatever, Navy, the gray ships, the Coast Guard and start waving our rifles. We cannot do that today. It is unrealistic. It cannot be true,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not commit the lives of the Filipinos only to die unnecessarily. I will not go into a battle which I can never win,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that China was indeed building structures and military bases but noted that these were not intended to be used against the Philippines but her opponents such as the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow,\u00a0nandiyan ang<\/em>\u00a0China (is there) building structures and military bases, I must admit it. But is it intended for us? You must be joking. It\u2019s not intended for us,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really intended against those who the Chinese think would destroy them, and that is America,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte, meanwhile, assured that he will still insist that China cannot claim the Philippine Rise (formerly Benham Rise).<\/p>\n

\u201cBenham or the Philippine Rise and I would insist on the Philippine Rise because that is ours, period. We allowed expeditions, undersea expeditions,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

He, however, said that there are ongoing negotiations on joint explorations between the two countries.<\/p>\n

Best options<\/strong><\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque has maintained that the government will continue to protect national interest by being consistent in its obligation under the United Nations (UN) charter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not resort to the use of force, we will not allow our territory to be used in a manner inconsistent with international law,\u201d Roque said in a Palace briefing on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

He also reiterated that Chinese reclamation began during the administration of former President Benigno S. Aquino III and that the best option available was to prevent further reclamation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to underscore the fact that when the President came into power, they are already reclaimed. They were really going to be used for military purposes already. Stop looking at us,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to make do with the best options we have and right now it\u2019s to acknowledge the fact that under the past admin, this islands were reclaimed and intended to be used for whatever purpose they\u2019re being used now. They way forward is the President has repeatedly said is to prevent China from making further reclamation because they could very well do it if they want,\u201d he added.\u00a0(PNA)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— \u201cWhen I can talk to them, why should I fight? China is willing to talk.\u201d President Rodrigo R. Duterte …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":153567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[5450,34232,46958,15359,16251,1746],"class_list":["post-153565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-benham-rise","tag-benigno-s-aquino-iii","tag-chinese-filipino-business-club","tag-harry-roque","tag-rodrigo-r-duterte","tag-united-nations","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153565","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=153565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}