(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday, June 6, dismissed anew calls for him to send soldiers to the West Philippine Sea to assert the country’s claims.
In a speech on Tuesday night, Duterte said sending the troops to fight China, which has been aggressive in its militarization in the area, would “result in a massacre.”
“I am not prepared to lose my soldiers and policeman for a simple adventurism,” Duterte said in a press briefing at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 2 after his arrival from a three-day official trip in South Korea.
He said “either I am inviting trouble within my country or the military and police will oust me.”
He said it was he who would bear the brunt of the negative circumstances of such a move.
“Can I rely now in America and drop the first bomb when we attack? Can I rely on anybody’s help? If all of my soldiers will die there and all of the policemen to assist them, madisgraya ang Pilipinas sino ang managot? The people will execute me right at the Luneta,” he said.
The President has been consistent in his less aggressive approach toward China in the West Philippine Sea.
This is a turnaround from the approach of former President Benigno Aquino III, who raised the issue before the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration, which ruled in the Philippines’ favor.