‘There is only one voice on what’s ours: mine. Period…. I speak for the President on this subject,’ says Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr after Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque’s wrong claim regarding Julian Felipe Reef Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr reiterated that only the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) should speak on the country’s foreign […]

“An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted,” Arthur Miller once observed. In the same vein, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), a once promising regional organisation, is confronting its own moment of truth. The raging civil war in Myanmar, and the festering disputes in the South China Sea, […]

MANILA (BLOOMBERG) – China has added more ships in a disputed area of the South China Sea even after the Philippines’ repeated protests, according to President Rodrigo Duterte’s top diplomat, who has pledged to take up the issue with his Chinese counterpart. The South-east Asian nation is considering another protest after Chinese vessels in the […]

Foreign Secretary Teddy Locsin Jnr says there are now 300 Chinese boats in the disputed waters, up from 200 in March His remarks came as the armed forces chief said the Philippines was on track to build facilities on Thitu island to boost the efforts of the maritime forces The Philippines’ Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin […]

President Duterte disavowed Monday that he harangued China during his 2016 presidential campaign. “I did not promise that I would pressure China,” he claimed. “I never mentioned about China and the Philippines in my campaign because that was a very serious matter. I never, never in my campaign as president promised the people that I […]

The folly in President Duterte’s challenge to debate Antonio Carpio was that people expected him to back out. Upon announcement of his retreat, friends and foes groaned in texts: “Hay, sabi ko na nga ba!” The Cabinet’s assignment of his spox Harry Roque in his stead only magnified the shame. Memes instantly mocked, “Sa Japan […]

MANILA – The mixed messages sent between President Rodrigo Duterte’s conciliatory tone towards China and the barrage of protests from his own foreign and defence ministries over apparent incursions into Philippine-claimed waters have led to a cognitive dissonance in Manila’s disputes with Beijing over the South China Sea. On Wednesday (May 5), he dismissed a […]

  MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines on Wednesday said its maritime patrols had twice driven Chinese vessels away from a shoal within the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). It was the first time since President Duterte took office in 2016 that the government disclosed such a move by Philippine ships against Chinese vessels. The action […]

MANILA (2nd UPDATE) – Around 200 ships are still moored at West Philippine Sea, a geospatial intelligence firm bared Thursday, which the company said were likely the same fleet that were monitored over Julian Felipe Reef in March. As of May 3, some 7 ships were only spotted over Julian Felipe Reef or Whitsun Reef, […]

MANILA— Former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario on Thursday said it was a “national tragedy” that President Rodrigo Duterte considers the 2016 arbitral ruling that invalidated China’s excessive claims in the South China Sea a mere scrap of paper. In a statement, Del Rosario said the country’s allies such as the United States, Australia, […]