Philippines: China is 'a bully'

For the Coast Guard vessel, this is the first time that they use such level of aggression that you personally witness. The metal parts on the railing were bended. The canopy from the fond tail was also destroyed. So this came as a surprise for us that China never hesitated to use brute force and to completely justify our call to People’s Republic of China as a bully country. It is quite predictable that the Chinese would have pushed back on your presence there, though. Are you not poking the bear? Well, the point here is that why are we going to worry about poking the bear if Bahu, Dimasin Loch or Scarborough Shoal really falls within our own exclusive economic zone? What if instead of having the narration of us poking the bear, But what if the narration should be we’re just driving away the bear out of our own territory. So what’s the end game? You’re increasing your patrols but where does it go from here? The page one is for the Philippines. As the lead actor in telling the world, China is a bully country, low offender it and it undermines the rules based order on the page two. It falls on the responsibility of those like minded states to have a collective action to make China fall in line and respect the international law. This fight of the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea is not just for our own fight. This is a fight for everybody who cares for a rules based order. Because definitely China is a rising power that is challenging the international law in our global order. So how far are you willing to go to protect these waters? Because China could blockade indefinitely. Well, as far as the Philippine Coast Guard is concerned and the guidance of the President is very clear, we’re not going to yield and we’re not going to surrender a square Angel of our territory. Are you not concerned about risking open conflict? The public is already demanding the Philippine Coast Guard to use water cannon because we are equipped with water cannon. But you know, you’ll be surprised that’s not part of the procedure that we do because the guidance of the president is very clear. We should not be provoked. We should maintain our temper. We should deal with them still professionally. That’s why when you were on board, despite of that kind of threatening, life threatening action of China, the commanding officer of that vessel that were you were boarded. You can still see from him the cool head trying to maintain temper. But in reality all of the Coast Guard personnel or front liners are really angered because of the action of China. Have you heard from the Americans and do you think if push came to shove, they really would support you militarily if China was to launch a military attack? Well, you know, I’m a very optimist when it comes to mutual defense treaty. I would like to believe that the Americans are really sincere in the mutual defense treaty is particularly the Article 4, that an attack on our public vessels, the armed force, the Philippines and the Philippines Coast Guard and even aircraft and sailors will be an attack on the United States. It looks like a very precarious game of cat and mouse. Do you except that this is a more dangerous chapter in that ongoing conflict for us, we may fail as a small nation compared to the bigger country like China. But this is not just something that you need to fight for. This is a fight that all of us countries like Australia, Japan, United States, the G7 countries has to make a collective action to make China fall in line. Respect the international law. Otherwise it’s everybody’s loss.