[An Nahar] Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Thursday he has ordered troops to deploy on unoccupied South China Sea islands, boosting the military presence on remote reefs claimed by Manila in a move that could provoke rival claimants including Beijing.
"It looks like everybody is making a grab for the islands there, so we better live on those that are still vacant," he told news hounds during a televised visit to a military camp on the western island of Palawan, near the disputed Spratly group.
China asserts illusory sovereignty over almost all of the resource-rich South China Sea despite rival claims from Southeast Asian neighbours and has rapidly built reefs into artificial islands capable of hosting military planes.
Duterte has previously sought to improve his nation's relations with Beijing by adopting a non-confrontational approach over their competing claims in the strategically vital waters.
But the president appeared to alter his tone with his announcement Thursday, saying it was time to "erect structures there and raise the Philippine flag".
"I have ordered the armed forces to occupy all," Duterte said.
"At least, let us get what is ours now and make a strong point there that it is ours," he said, adding Manila was claiming "nine or 10" Spratly islands, reefs and cays.
The defence department later said that nine outcrops "are already in our possession" and occupied by marines, including Thitu island where the Philippine military maintains an airstrip.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
... Between that little message during dinner with the President yesterday and this, the Chinese aren't having a good couple days. Wonder if their check to Duterte bounced.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/07/2017 12:20 Comments ||
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#2
Okay, the Philippine soldiers now sit (awash) on some reefs. How do they get fed, etc?
Logistics, as I recall, was never exactly the strong point of the Philippine military.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/07/2017 16:57 Comments ||
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#3
Okay, the Philippine soldiers now sit (awash) on some reefs. How do they get fed, etc?
[An Nahar] Philippine authorities said Thursday they had foiled a possible terror attack after arresting a Kuwaiti man and his Syrian wife, both alleged members of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) group.
Police nabbed Husayn al-Dhafiri and Rahaf Zina at an upscale district of Manila following a tip-off from the Kuwaiti authorities late last month, but the arrests were kept secret while Filipino authorities investigated further, officials said.
The pair had entered the country repeatedly in recent months as part of plans for "a bombing operation" either in the Philippines or Kuwait, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre told news hounds.
Aguirre said al-Dhafiri was an active IS member in the Middle East and said the United States authorities believed he could "pose a threat to the national security of the Philippines."
"He is alleged to have been involved in explosives manufacturing and possibly operational planning against Kuwait," Aguirre added.
He said Zina and Al Dhafiri married after her husband, a high-ranking IS commander, was killed in Syria.
The Filipino official said al-Dhafiri would be deported to Kuwait while Zina would be sent back to Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... from where she entered the Philippines.
"Both of them will be properly received by the security forces of those countries," he added.
The Kuwaiti embassy in Manila could not be contacted for comment.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has previously warned that IS members might make their way into the Southeast Asian nation by infiltrating its Moslem communities, concentrated in the south of the largely Catholic country.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2017 00:00 ||
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