The terms West Philippine Sea (WPS) and the South China Sea (SCS) are not interchangeable, Professor Jay Batongbacal reiterated during a forum on Thursday. “The West Philippine Sea is not synonymous with the South China Sea. You do not interchange the two,” said Batongbacal, director of the UP Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of […]

MANILA, Philippines — While the Philippines and the United States reaffirmed their defense cooperation in their last dialogue, the two countries missed some opportunities to address issues in the South China Sea, part of which is the West Philippine Sea. In a joint statement after the conclusion of their 8th bilateral strategic dialogue, Manila and […]

  MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte insisted Wednesday Manila’s sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea despite his decision to allow China to fish in the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). “As far as I’m concerned, I’m the owner, and I’m just giving the fishing rights,” Duterte told Pastor Apollo Quiboloy in his show […]

China and the United States are currently on a collision course for war – unless both parties take difficult and painful actions to avert it. This is the basic theme of the book Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? written by Graham Allison in 2017. This is not a book about […]

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly said that he does not want to go to war against China on the West Philippine Sea or the South China Sea. He made it clear that we do not stand a chance against a superpower nation with military resources that outnumber us and much more advanced than what we […]

MANILA, Philippines — “Multilateral resistance” from the United States and its allies against China’s militarization in the South China Sea is something Beijing cannot ignore, said a State Department official. “We’re strongest when we coordinate with like-minded allies and others,” said US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell in […]

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte kept his majority approval rating halfway through his term, according to a survey done after a South China Sea incident that highlighted his stance on Beijing. Duterte’s approval rating declined to 85% from 87% last quarter, pollster Pulse Asia said Wednesday in e-mailed results of an end-June nationwide survey, adding that […]

HANOI – Vietnamese and Chinese ships have been embroiled in a weeks-long standoff near an offshore oil block in disputed waters of the South China Sea, which fall within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone, 2 Washington-based think-tanks said on Wednesday. China’s U-shaped “nine-dash line” marks a vast expanse of the South China Sea that it claims, […]

China and Vietnam have been handling their recent South China Sea stand-off in an unusually restrained manner, leading observers to conclude both nations have learned from their deadly crisis of five years ago. The latest confrontation began two weeks ago when a Chinese geological survey ship began conducting a seismic survey near the Vietnamese-controlled – […]

MANILA, Philippines — Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said President Rodrigo Duterte’s remarks that he would invoke the Mutual Defense Treaty with America may just be another of the Philippine leader’s jokes. In an interview with Pastor Apollo Quiboloy’s “Give Us This Day,” Duterte said Wednesday: “I’m calling now America. I’m invoking the […]