Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. pledged on July 27 to defend his country’s South China Sea rights, days after Manila publicly condemned Chinese state media for depicting Filipinos as monkeys while attacking a landmark maritime ruling.
“We are Filipinos, and we do not yield,” Marcos told a joint session of Congress in his fifth State of the Nation Address.
Marcos said his government would do “all that is necessary” to uphold the 2016 arbitration award, which rejected the legal basis for Beijing’s claim to historic rights over much of the South China Sea.
“This is not a claim that we advance alone, nor is it one that we will abandon,” he said….
Marcos Pledges Firm Defense of Philippines’ South China Sea Rights Amid China Tensions
