DAVAO CITY—The Philippine government would stick to its decades-old claim to Sabah, as with the group of islands in the Spratlys and the Scarborough Shoal.
“I will stick to our claim, to air our side that it is part of our land,” President-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte told reporters at a late Wednesday night news conference here.
“It is the same with China. Whether you want to believe it or not is beside the point,” he said.
“The point is the area is ours. It is not a question of territory. It is a question that the place is well within the 200-kilometer exclusive economic zone of the Philippines,” Duterte said.
He said it would be a violation of territorial rights, “if you put something in there that obstructs or impedes our movement in the exercise of that right.”
This was the point Duterte raised with the Chinese ambassador, who paid him a courtesy call last week.
“I told him that since the case is still in the arbitration case, you might as well allow our brother fishermen to fish there,” he said.
The problem, Duterte said, is “the Malaysians arrested our fishermen.”
Sabah is contested by the Philippines and Malaysia, but it was placed on the back burner to allow for greater diplomatic relations between the two countries. Aside from belonging to the 10-member Asean, the two countries are also in the subregional grouping called Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East Asean Growth Area.