PH to assert claims over Spratlys, Sabah – Duterte
Davao City – Incoming President Rodrigo Duterte turned his tough talk on China and Malaysia as he maintained that the Philippines would assert its claims over disputed territories in the West Philippine Sea and Sabah, respectively. “Whether you want to believe it or not, that is beside the point. The point is, that is ours,” Duterte said in a press conference early Thursday. He was referring to territories in the Spratly Islands in the West Philippine Sea, which were claimed by China when the Asian giant built artificial islands on reefs and shoals, then established structures. China has been maintaining that the disputed areas fall within the “nine-dash line” which it asserts as its territory. But the Philippines has challenged this claim in the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal and said that China violated the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), on exclusive economic zones and territorial [...]