Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte launched a spirited defence of his relationship with China yesterday, insisting that his refusal to challenge its maritime assertiveness was not capitulation, but an avoidance of conflict.
Known for his stinging rebukes of Western powers, the firebrand leader devoted part of his annual state of the nation address to arguing that it was senseless to confront a country with claims to the same waters, and a far superior military.
“I will send our marines to drive away the Chinese fishermen, I guarantee you, not one of them will come home alive,” he said in a one-and-a-half-hour speech to Congress that frequently went off script.
“If I send my new frigate, they will be decimated because there are already guided missiles on that island,” he said, referring to a reef that China has turned into a de facto military installation.
“The fastest that they have installed can reach Manila in seven minutes. You want war?”
Duterte has drawn heavy scrutiny for his warm ties to a country deeply mistrusted by his US-allied defence apparatus, with critics accusing him of gambling with national sovereignty in pursuit of massive investments that have not materialised.
An anti-China protest ran for several hours outside the venue of Duterte’s speech.
His opponents have pressured him to take a tougher line after last month’s sinking of a Philippine fishing boat by a Chinese vessel, and point to Beijing’s increased coast guard and fishing militia in disputed water as a sign of insincerity.
China says it has the right to defend what it calls its waters, despite a 2016 international arbitration ruling that invalidated its claim to almost the entire South China Sea.
That case was lodged and won by the Philippines, an issue Duterte said he would most probably raise with China in his final year in office.
“Let me assure you, national honour and territorial integrity are at the foremost of my mind,” he added. “But we have to temper it with the times and realities we face today.”
He said government graft was pervasive and promised a day of reckoning for corrupt officials, ordering local governments to enforce laws to protect the environment and threatening to shut down polluters.
He demanded more efficient business processes and threatened in jest to kill the heads of underperforming agencies, besides floated the idea of closing bars nationwide at midnight, and banning karaoke singing in public after 8pm or 9pm.
Alcohol and tobacco “should be exterminated from the face of the earth” as they had given him health problems, he added.
Duterte made few references to his signature war on drugs, despite a July 11 decision by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate the thousands of deaths and allegations of summary killings by police.
Critics say Duterte’s frequent threats and talk of bloodshed have emboldened police to kill drug users and peddlers with impunity.
Police say suspects were killed in self defence.
“I use similes, metaphor, hyperbole, every now and then to stress a point,” Duterte said, referring to his rhetoric. “I am as human as anybody else.”
He also joked about a preliminary examination of the drugs crackdown by the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying he might agree to go on trial with a few conditions. “’Duterte extrajudical killing — report to the ICC’,” he said.
Duterte did not talk about the controversy surrounding the upcoming 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, which the Philippines would host from November to December but instead pushed for the creation of a national sports academy for high school students during his address yesterday.
Senate Bill 1332, filed by senator Edgardo “Sonny” Angara in February 2017 seeks to create and establish the Philippine High School for Sports (PHSS) where world-class Filipino athletes would emerge.
The PHSS will provide its students a training programme that will groom them into national athletes capable of competing in the Southeast Asian, Asian and Olympic levels.
Besides sports skills, the PHSS will also provide the students the needed skills to make them employable after high school.
Duterte previously signed a law establishing the Philippine Sports Training Center (PSTC), a state-of-the-art and highly-scientific sports complex.
The Philippines Southeast Asian Games Organising Committee (PHISGOC) is embroiled in a controversy surrounding allegedly questionable deals with the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) that has resulted in the resignation of its president Ricky Vargas.
Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, chairman of the PHISGOC, has denied involvement.
Thousands of activists march on the road leading to the Congress during a protest against Duterte’s annual State of the Nation Address in Manila yesterday.
