SOUTH China Sea tensions are on a knife-edge amid Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s ongoing row with China over a Philippine fishing vessel sunk in an alleged “hit and run” – and now the US could be dragged into the dispute. Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo made the statement after US Ambassador to the Philippines Kim Sung […]
MANILA, Philippines (3rd UPDATE) – President Rodrigo Duterte’s dismissive statement on the Recto (Reed) Bank incident has left Filipinos “heartbroken,” Senator Panfilo Lacson said on Tuesday, June 18. Lacson and other senators on Wednesday expressed disappointment over Duterte’s first-ever statement on Philippine fishing boat Gem-Ver that was sunk – and abandoned – by a […]
SANGLEY POINT, Cavite, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday dismissed the sinking of a Philippine fishing boat in the South China Sea after being hit by a Chinese trawler as a “little maritime accident” and said he would not go to war with China over the incident. Breaking his silence a week after the […]
China on Tuesday said that it was are ready to enhance communication with the Philippines on the investigation on the June 9 Recto Bank ramming of a Philippine fishing boat by a Chinese vessel. “We are ready… [to] increase understanding, dispel mistrust and find out what actually happened” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang, […]
MANILA – Sen. Joel Villanueva on Tuesday said the administration appears to be in a “state of confusion” over the incident involving a Chinese vessel and a Filipino fishing boat in the Recto (Reed) Bank in the West Philippine Sea. In a statement, Villanueva said government officials must provide clarity about the incident, as he […]
‘It is a felony to abandon people in distress,’ says Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr, after President Rodrigo Duterte dismissed the issue as a ‘maritime incident’ MANILA, Philippines – Foreign Secretary Teodoro “Teddyboy” Locsin Jr raised at the United Nations (UN) the sinking of a Filipino boat by a Chinese ship in the West […]
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has a chance to raise the sinking of a Filipino fishing boat by a Chinese vessel in the West Philippine Sea during the upcoming ASEAN Summit in Thailand. Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Junever Mahilum-West said the South China Sea, part of which is the West Philippine Sea, will be on […]
In the wake of various incidents involving Philippine claims and interests in the South China Sea (SCS), that body of water west of the Philippines that separates us from China in the north, Vietnam in the west, and Brunei and Malaysia in the south, some Philippine officials have voiced a need to review the […]
The US has been steadily ratcheting up the pressure on China’s sea forces in a way that could lower the threshold for conflict in the South China Sea, which is already a hotbed of tension. The US is signaling a tougher stance toward the Chinese maritime militia, a paramilitary sea force disguised as a […]
MANILA, Philippines – The sinking of a Filipino fishing boat by a Chinese ship in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) evoked memories of a similar incident involving a Vietnamese boat in 2014. On May 26, 2014, a large Chinese ship chased and rammed a Vietnamese fishing boat near an oil rig close to […]