By Patricia Lourdes Viray
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte has questioned the silence of the United States over Chinese activities in the disputed South China Sea.
The president said that only the US can deal with China over the contested waters.
"Why in hell ang America siya lang talaga ang pwede kumasa doon bakit sabihin niya ngayon magpunta ang Navy ko? It will be a massacre for my soldiers, I will not do it (Why would America tell me to have my Navy sent to the South China Sea when it is the only one that can posture there?)," Duterte said in a speech during the opening ceremonies of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines' 16th National Convention of Lawyers on Thursday evening.
Duterte noted that the Philippines had been warned about five years ago that somebody was going to build a structure in Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, a traditional fishing ground off the coast of Zambales.
The president said that the US should have addressed Chinese activities in the area as soon as they were informed about it.
"Bakit hindi mo pinuntahan doon? Bakit hindi mo sinita? Bakit hindi ka nagpadala ng limang aircraft carrier at kinasahan mo and you had to wait for the problem to ripen into international issue involving this time so many countries... You could have cut the problem in the bud had you taken a decisive action," Duterte said. (Google Translate: Why you went there? Why do not you confronted? Why do not you sent five aircraft carriers and kinasahan you and you had to wait for the problem to ripen into international issue involving so many countries this time ... You could have cut the problem in the bud had you taken a decisive action, " Duterte said.)
The US government under former President Barack Obama, however, deployed several freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, challenging China's excessive maritime claims. From October 2015 to September 2016 alone, the US challenged five of China's claims, including its so-called jurisdiction over airspace above another country's exclusive economic zone and Beijing's laws criminalizing survey activities in the area.
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Google Translate text above was added by PacificSentinel