Philippines President bars cabinet from commenting on South China Sea dispute

Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte has banned his cabinet from speaking out in public on the South China Sea dispute, after key ministers engaged in a war of words with Beijing. Tensions between Manila and Beijing escalated in late March after hundreds of Chinese boats were spotted inside the Whitsun Reef in the Spratly Islands, which falls under the Philippines’s Special Economic Zone. Despite repeated claims by Manila, China has not retracted the boars claiming that they were merely fishing boats.

"This is my order now to the cabinet... to refrain (from) discussing this West Philippine Sea (issue) with... anybody," Duterte said in a recorded speech late Monday as quoted by ANI. "If we have to talk, we talk only among us," Duterte added.

While Duterte has been reluctant to confront China over the issue, his foreign and defence secretaries have repeatedly criticized Beijing for its refusal to withdraw the ships from the disputed waters. Earlier this month, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin caught eyeballs after he made an explicit tweet demanding belong to take back its boats. In his tweet, he called China an “ugly oaf” and demanded it “get the f***” out of Philippine waters. Later, he issued a public apology for the same.

The waterway lies in the South China Sea, upon which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been relentlessly laying claims without any evidence. In recent months, Beijing has escalated the war of nerves by deploying boats and military ships in the disputed sea.

Nearly 300 Chinese ships

Last week, the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF WPS) said that a maritime patrol on Sunday, May 9 spotted the presence of 287 Chinese maritime militia (CMM) vessels scattered over the various features of the Municipality of Kalayaan, both within and outside the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the country. As per a statement signed by NTF WPS chair and National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr, huge groups of CMMs were spotted at the artificial islands which have been built by China. Also,  some were observed near islands occupied by the Philippines. 

The body further said that it spotted 2 CMM vessels and 2 Houbei-class missile warships inside Panganiban (Mischief) Reef, one CMM off Lawak (Nanshan) Island. Also, 11 CMM vessels located approximately 29 nautical miles southwest of Recto (Reed) Bank; and another CMM vessel off Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal. 

Image: AP