President Rodrigo Duterte’s repeated delays of his earlier decision to end the Philippines’s Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States means the country’s independent foreign policy has yet to have a clear direction, a party-list lawmaker said.
For the first time in four years, the administration and the fractured political opposition have spoken in one voice against China’s illegal claims in the South China Sea, a situation that China does not want to happen.
As China stepped up its aggressive military activities in the disputed South China Sea, exploiting the distraction caused by the coronavirus pandemic, there is an urgent need for Southeast Asian countries that have conflicting claims on the strategic waters to come together and challenge Beijing’s bullying. By Manny Mogato
Using its might, China has been harassing oil-and-gas explorations of Southeast Asian countries in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway claimed by Beijing based on historical records, where about $3 trillion worth of sea-borne goods pass every year.