Marcos says Philippines ‘resigned’ to managing South China Sea dispute

Speaking in Singapore, the Philippine leader warned a simple misstep at sea could trigger an out-of-control clash

The Philippines is “resigned” to managing its long-standing dispute with Beijing in the South China Sea and avoiding dangerous escalations, President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr said on Thursday.

At the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Singapore, Marcos said: “I don’t know if we can find a resolution to the problem, but we are resigned to just being able to manage the problem, so that we do not have mistakes, we do not have misinterpretations.

“My greatest fear is that some seaman, some soldier, just makes a mistake, and that mistake turns into something that goes out of control.”

But the Philippine president reiterated Manila’s sovereign rights over the waterway, which he said were backed by international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

“We refer to it as the West Philippine Sea,” Marcos said before an audience of over 400 chief executives, entrepreneurs, and investors. “It’s been on the western side of the Philippines, you know, since time immemorial.”