Duterte to push sea code ‘at all cost’ during Asean-China meet

President Rodrigo Duterte. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ JOAN BONDOC

SINGAPORE – President Rodrigo Duterte will “at all cost” push for the completion of the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea, as Beijing continues to ignore a United Nations sea ruling that favored the Philippines’ claims in the disputed waterway.

“I will focus on the COC. Everything has been excellent between China and the rest of the Asean except for the fact that there’s a friction between the Western nations and China,” he told reporters in an ambush interview here.

The President said he was “worried” about the friction between China and Western countries, particularly the United States because Manila had a Mutual Defense treaty with Washington.

He said he was also worried of “serious miscalculations” in the disputed sea.

“You know because of the treaty, I’d like to [tell] China [that]. That is why at all cost we must have the COC,” he said.

“So you’re there, you’re in possession, you occupied it, then tell us what route shall we take and what kind of behavior,” he added.

Duterte said the Philippine-US Mutual Defense pact, signed in 1991, had not been abrogated.

“It’s not been abrogated. It’s there. And even – I don’t know. It’s the decision of the President, Congress, the Armed Forces,” he said.

The Philippines is the dialogue coordinator of the Asean-China Summit until 2021.

The Philippines, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, and Taiwan have overlapping claims in the South China Sea, a resource-rich waterway where Beijing has sweeping claims.

China claims nearly the entire South China Sea, including parts of the West Philippine Sea, but the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague invalidated this in July 2016, recognizing it to be part of the Philippines exclusive economic zone.  /cbb