Philippine Hardens Stance Against China’s Maritime Intrusion

Our friendship ends here, President Duterte tells China.

By Liz Lagniton, Philippines correspondent, Maritime Fairtrade

“I will really not back down. You can kill me, but I will remain. This is where our friendship will end.”

That was what President Rodrigo Duterte told China in a television appearance on May 13 amid a groundswell of anti-Beijing sentiment in the Philippines after dozens of Chinese fishing vessels intruded into Philippine waters in the Spratly archipelago.

The Filipino leader only made this remark now, two months after another previous aggressive incident in which Chinese fishing vessels, numbering around 200, were sighted at Julian Felipe (Whitsun) Reef in March, infuriating critics of Duterte’s diplomatic pivot to China.

Widespread resentment with China’s aggression in South China Sea

The growing dissatisfaction first started from Duterte’s televised remark on May 5 when he denigrated the landmark 2016 ruling on the South China Sea dispute by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in favor of the Philippines was just a “piece of paper” that could be trashed. This was in stark contrast to his 2020 speech at the UN General Assembly where he said he would reject…