Sara Duterte on WPS tensions: No comment

VICE President Sara Duterte said relevant agencies should handle the maritime dispute between the Philippines and China.    

“No comment,” Duterte told reporters on Monday when asked for comment on China’s actions against Filipino vessels in the West Philippine Sea.   

She then pointed to her brother, Davao City Representative Paolo Duterte’s statement on the issue on March 27, calling it “comprehensive.” 

In his statement, Paolo Duterte said that “the question of the actions of Chinese vessels in the WPS should be directed to the chief architect of foreign policy, the Secretary of National Defense and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs.”   

“It is not the job of the Vice President or the Secretary of the Department of Education to demonize China or any country for that matter,” the lawmaker said after the vice president received criticism for being silent on a key national security issue.

Beijing and Manila have a long history of maritime territorial disputes in the South China Sea, a portion of which Manila refers to as the West Philippine Sea, and there have been repeated confrontations between their vessels near disputed reefs in recent months.   

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, brushing off rival claims from other countries, including the Philippines, as well as an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.    

Among the claimants, China has been the most assertive, deploying ships to patrol the waters and building artificial islands, which it has militarized.