MANILA – Chinese President Xi Jinping threatened for trouble if the Philippines will push ahead with drilling oil in the disputed part of the West Philippines Sea.
President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday recalled his bilateral meeting with Xi where he raised the possibility of tapping oil resources.
“Sabi ko, ‘I’m going there to dig oil.’ Ang sagot ni Xi Jinping in whisper, ‘Alam mo, Mayor Duterte, we just restored our friendship. It was not good for a number of years. Pero huwag na muna tayong pag-usapan,” Duterte said. “Let’s talk about helping each other, trade, commerce, investment, China can help.”
“No, no, balik ako sabi ko, I want my oil because that is ours there. And he said ‘no, because you know that could mean trouble,” he added. “Pag lumabas ‘yan that is trouble, anong ibig sabihin niyan from the mouth of a president?”
Duterte was asked by the media how China’s warning could be reconciled with a provision in the 1987 Constitution on protecting the nation’s exclusive economic zone but the President said that the provision was “thoughtless and senseless.”
“Ang China, pareho ng Pilipino hindi mo pwede hiyain. Magwawala ‘yan at magpuputak. Magpunta ako doon, sabihin ko, Get out because this is the Constitution. Sabihin sa’yo: Naubusan ka na ng toilet paper? Gamitin mo ‘yan,” Duterte said.
“Because that means war. And that piece of paper, the Constitution, would become meaningless with no spirit except desperation, agony, and suffering,” he added.
The Philippines filed a case challenging China’s expansive claims to virtually the entire South China Sea in the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2013. The arbitral tribunal sided with the Philippines but China refused to recognize the proceedings and ignored the ruling./PN
