Philippines will contest Beijing’s plan for a maritime rescue centre in South China Sea, envoy says
- Comments by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin contradict earlier remarks by Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman that country should be grateful to China
The Philippines will protest against China’s opening of a maritime rescue centre in the South China Sea, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin said, just days after President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman said the Southeast Asian nation should be grateful for the move.
Locsin said he supported Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio’s position that the Philippines must contest China’s construction of the centre on Fiery Cross Reef, which Xinhua reported on Thursday.
Carpio was part of the Philippine delegation that won a 2016 ruling that China’s efforts to assert control over the disputed waterway exceeded the law.
Under President Xi Jinping, China has built a web of artificial islands with runways and lighthouses to exert influence in the sea, raising the ire of countries including the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam, who also lay claim to the area.
“We will” protest if the reports turn out to be true, Locsin said on Twitter. “I however preferred engaging them openly on the floor of the UN General Assembly.”