YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan – The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan departed its Yokosuka homeport Tuesday for a scheduled patrol of the Asia-Pacific region, amid concerns about North Korea and questions about how the White House will address China’s claims to the South China Sea. The roughly 5,000 sailors assigned to the ship and its […]

Last Friday the newly appointed secretary of foreign affairs, Alan Peter Cayetano, made this statement with regard to foreign aid: “We will not accept aid from any country if there are strings attached, if there are conditions, because we are an independent nation, and we have an independent foreign policy.” This statement echoes the Duterte […]

Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said he has been in all the bilateral meetings between President Duterte and China’s President Xi Jinping and he has not witnessed any threat of war uttered by the Chinese President. Philippine Ambassador to China Chito Sta. Romana, who has worked and lived in China as a journalist before he […]

MANILA, Philippines – Supreme Court (SC) Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has advised the Duterte government to elevate to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Chinese President Xi Jinping’s threat of war against the Philippines should the latter insist on drilling for oil in the disputed South China Sea, or […]

President Rodrigo Duterte should take China to the United Nations (UN) for threatening the Philippines with war if it drills for oil in an area in the West Philippine Sea that has already been declared within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said on Saturday. The world body “outlaws the […]

MANILA can file another case against Beijing before a United Nations tribunal for threatening war against the Philippines over the dispute in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said on Saturday. In a statement, Carpio said the Philippine government can run to the UN tribunal under the United Nations […]

WASHINGTON – China has deployed HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles on Hainan Island in the northern part of the South China Sea, an Israeli satellite imagery company has learned, citing analysis of recently captured images. Amid concern about Beijing’s militarization and island building in disputed areas of the South China Sea, the observation that “China is apparently […]

A Chinese state-run Defense Times newspaper has said Norinco CS/AR-1 55mm anti-frogman rocket launcher defense systems with the capability to discover, identify and attack enemy combat divers had been installed on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands. While Pentagon officials did not wish to specifically comment on this report, saying they do not discuss […]

SUMMARY MANILA, Philippines – Newly appointed Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano on Friday, May 19, said he is wary of having  a “legally binding” Code of Conduct (COC) in the disputed South China Sea. In his first interview with reporters at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Cayetano said he prefers the COC to first […]