Aquino: We can fight back vs any threat
Faced with territorial disputes and worries of external and internal threats, President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday claimed that the Philippines can fight back and defend itself within its bounds.
Faced with territorial disputes and worries of external and internal threats, President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday claimed that the Philippines can fight back and defend itself within its bounds.
The Philippines has formally protested the “provocative and illegal” presence of Chinese government ships around a shoal within the Philippine continental shelf in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), asserting exclusive rights to use resources within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
With the standoff in the disputed Sabah still unresolved, the country’s mission in Kuala Lumpur is hoping to put Mindanao in a positive light on the Malaysian stage.
The first Chinese tour ship to visit disputed South China Sea islands set sail on Sunday, state media reported, a move likely to stoke a long-running territorial row between Beijing and its neighbors.
The Philippines will not drop its case against China over claims to the South China Sea even if China were to pull out its surveillance ships from the Scarborough Shoal, President Aquino said Wednesday night.
President Benigno Aquino III is flying to Brunei Wednesday for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, optimistic that the push for talks on the code of conduct in the (West Philippine Sea) South China Sea with China would prosper.
The government is skirting the Sabah conflict – a pestering issue between the Philippines and Malaysia – in next week’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ summit in Brunei, officials said on Wednesday.
The Philippines reiterated, on Thursday, its commitment to the peaceful settlement of its claims in the West Philippine Sea or the South China Sea area through arbitration proceedings under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS.
More than 400 “volunteer fighters” of the so-called sultanate of Sulu have arrived in Lahad Datu, Sabah, to reinforce the sultanate’s “Royal Security Forces (RSF),” triggering clashes with Malaysian security forces, the sultanate’s spokesperson said on Tuesday.
At least 50 representatives of government agencies in the Zamboanga peninsula and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) have drafted an action plan to address the heavy influx of Filipino returnees from Sabah, Malaysia.
China is to open disputed South China Sea islands up to tourism this month, state media reported Sunday, a move likely to inflame a long-running territorial row with its neighbors.
Should the ongoing conflict in Sabah be tackled by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission?
