(Eagle News) — Why didn’t America stop China in the South China Sea then?
This was the question President Rodrigo Duterte said he asked the United States ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim when he spoke with him on Tuesday afternoon.
“Sabi ko, ‘You know I’m surprised really Mr. Ambassador. Had America really wanted to avoid trouble early on, e di sana overflights, pinakita sa newspapers that there was something abrewing. There was something as if a runway was being built, and there were some concrete buildings on…(the) coastal side. Why did you not send the Armada of the seventh fleet stationed in the Pacific to just make a u-turn, and go there, and tell them right (to) their face, ‘Stop it?'” Duterte said in his speech during the celebration of People’s Day in Oriental Mindoro on Wednesday.
According to the President, there is, after all, “another set of laws that says you can’t build man-made structures (in the) high seas.”
Duterte said the US ambassador replied that was not his assignment then.
Kim arrived in Manila on December 1, 2016.
During his speech, the President reiterated he would not go to war with the Chinese, whom he called a “a really good,” “enterprising” people, and “faithful friends.”
He recalled his visit to the neighboring country in October last year, and his statement to Chinese President Xi Jinping: “Sabi ko, ‘I’m not so much into war. My country is only a small one.'”
He noted that this did not mean, however, that the Philippines was abandoning its claim to the disputed area.
“Sabi ko (sa Chinese President), ‘I’m not here to impose on anything. As a matter of fact, I don’t want to mention anything in your presence but at anytime during your term, we will have to talk about the arbitration of the (South) China sea. And when the time comes, I will present to you the judgement on all four corners of the paper,and we will not talk about anything except China,'” Duterte said, referring to the July 2016 decision of the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration that ruled that the Philippines had exclusive sovereign rights over the disputed area.
The tribunal also ruled that “there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within the sea areas falling within the ‘nine-dash-line.'”
The decision stemmed from a case filed by the Philippines with the court in January 2013.
The case was filed following a standoff between Philippine and Chinese ships at Scarborough Shoal in 2012.