The United States on Monday gave the Philippines hundreds of machine guns, pistols and grenade launchers, which a local commander said would be used against Islamist militants battling troops in a southern city. The weapons, including machine guns capable of firing thousands of rounds a minute, were handed over at a ceremony in Manila that … Read more
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Wednesday martial law in the southern region of Mindanao could last a year, as he vowed it would be similar to the late Ferdinand Marcos’s dictatorship. “If it would take a year to do it, if it’s over within a month, then I’d be happy,” Duterte said in a video … Read more
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Thursday there was no point protesting Chinese artificial island building in disputed areas of the South China Sea because it could not be stopped. Duterte made the comments on the eve of him hosting a two-day Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, and he confirmed he would not use … Read more
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Thursday he was open to sharingBeijing in flashpoint South China Sea waters over which Manila has been given exclusive rights by an international tribunal. Beijing claims most of the sea, including waters close to the Philippine coast, despite the claim being declared as without basis last year by a United … Read more
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Sunday he could not stop China from building on a disputed shoal near his country’s west coast because it was too powerful. The mayor of China’s Sansha city has reportedly said his country would set up an environmental monitoring station on Scarborough Shoal, which China seized from the Philippines in … Read more