President Duterte not to raise WPS issue in Laos ASEAN Summit

From the Philippine News Agency (Aug 18): President Duterte not to raise WPS issue in Laos ASEAN Summit

President Rodrigo Duterte said on Wednesday that he has no plans to raise the West Philippine Sea territorial dispute in the 28th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit set from Sept. 3 to 8 in Vientiane, Laos.

”I will bring only the issue when we are together face to face (with China) because if we quarrel them now and you claim sovereignty, make noise here and there, then they might not even want to talk,” President said in a media interview at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

President Duterte underscored the importance of maintaining good relation with China.

”We maintain good relation to China. Let us not create an environment where we can sit down and talk directly and that’s the time that I would say we proceed from here,” the President said.

He added that war is not an option in settling the territorial dispute in the WPS.

”Can we declare a war? It is not an option. And I would not be stupid to do that. It would only be a massacre for all. May be many for us, some of them, but war is not an option nowadays,” the President said.

The President said he would rather let former President Fidel V. Ramos, his appointed special envoy to China, prepare the peaceful means to settle the dispute.

Last month, the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, Netherlands decided in favor of the Philippines’ arbitration case filed against China’s massive reclamation activities in the disputed WPS.

China has refused to honor the verdict of the United Nation’s arbitral tribunal.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=914866