MANILA, Philippines —“Benham Rise is exclusively Philippine property. I have made it clear to all, to the world: I will not allow any intrusion there,” President Rodrigo Duterte said in a taped public address that aired on Monday night.
“Well, of course, the right to innocent passage is everybody’s privilege, but to allow anybody even to just try to exploit or to look, I will not allow them to do that — because Philippine Rise belongs to the Filipino people,” Duterte added.
This was Duterte’s response to the suggestion of former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile who attended the briefing. Enrile suggested that “we get what we can get from China on the West Philippine Sea.”…
Keep on reading: Duterte says he won’t allow any intrusion in Philippine Rise