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MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday said the scheduled military exercises between the Philippines and the United States in October will be the last one.
“So I’m serving notice now to the Americans. I will maintain the military alliance, the RP-US pact which our countries signed in the early 50s. But I will establish new alliances for trade and commerce. And you are scheduled to hold war games, which China does not want. I will serve notice to you now that this will be the last military exercise. Jointly, Philippines, the US? Last one. Ayoko lang mapahiya si Defense Secretary (Delfin Lorenzana),” Duterte told the Filipino community in Hanoi, Vietnam.
The annual Philippines Amphibious Landing Exercise will be held from Oct. 4 to 12 in multiple locations in Luzon, including Palawan, which fronts reefs and outcrops that are being contested by Manila and Beijing, according to an embassy statement.
It will be the first war games between the two treaty allies under the Duterte administration, who has hit out at the United States for criticizing his bloody war on drugs.
Duterte added that he will not join any patrol activities in the South China Sea.
“Then I will not join any patrol in the [South China Sea]. Iyong gray ships, war ships. White iyong Coast Guard. There will never be an occasion that I will send gray ships there. Not because I am afraid. Not because takot ako. Anyway, I have this ruling by the International Court of Justice that says that iyong South China Sea, the entitlements there, are ours,” he said.
For Duterte, the Philippines is not ready to fight China, even with the help of the US.
“There is only two, either we go to war or we talk. Hindi natin kaya ang China. Sasabihin ko sa iyo, even with the help of America. So, we talk,” he said.
He, however, clarified that he will stand his ground in relation to the ruling released by an arbitration tribunal in The Hague.
“When the time comes, sabihin ko sa China, ito iyong amin. I will talk to you but I will not go out of the four corners of this paper,” he said. “But this is not the time to die. I am not ready to commit the soldiers of this country just to be massacred.”
He reiterated his plan to open the Philippines to China and Russia, which he will be visiting soon.
“I will visit China. I will open the doors to investment, lahat open, pati internet, mamili ka. Pati bowl diyan sa banyo, buksan ko iyan. Then I will go to Russia. I talked to Medvedev doon sa (Asean Summit). Sikreto lang, ngayon ko lang sasabihin. Now they know,” Duterte said.
Asked to comment, Foreign Affairs secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. said he did not hear the part of the President’s speech wherein he said all regular Philippine-US military exercises will be terminated.
Yasay said all of the Philippines’ treaties with the US, including the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, will outlast Duterte’s six-year term, and the President cannot abrogate the said agreements.
Duterte earlier said he would visit Russia and China this year to chart an independent foreign policy and “open alliances” with two powers with historic rivalries with the US.
He said the Philippines was at the “point of no return” in relations with former colonial ruler the United States, so he wanted to strengthen ties with others, and picked two global powers that have been sparring with Washington on the international political stage.
“I am ready to not really break (US) ties but we will open alliances with China and … Medvedev,” Duterte earlier told reporters, adding he would open up the “other side of the ideological barrier.”
He welcomed investment and shrugged off rating agency Standard and Poor’s concerns last week about the Philippine economy on his watch.
“Never mind about the ratings,” he said. “I will open up the Philippines for them to do business, alliances of trade and commerce.”
The peso has fallen to its lowest since 2009, and foreign investors have dumped local shares for six straight weeks, worried about Duterte’s anti-US rhetoric and brutal war on drugs, which has alarmed rights groups at home and abroad. (ABS-CBN News)
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