Philippines advocates truce after China has threatened.

The President of Philippines Ferdinand Marcos Junior has said on Monday, that his country does not want to go to war but will never order its vessels to withdraw from contested areas, following yet another coastguard encounter with China near Scarborough Shoal. He was also perplexed about a Chinese foreign ministry warning that he was “playing with fire” after he suggested last week during a visit to India that his country would “have to get involved” if a conflict between Beijing and Washington arose over Taiwan. “I don’t know what they are talking about. ‘Playing with fire’? I was just stating facts”, Marcos said.

“Inevitably, despite our first wish to avoid any confrontation with anybody anywhere, a war over Taiwan will drag the Philippines kicking and screaming into the conflict. That is what I was trying to say. That’s why I don’t understand Beijing’s response”, he said.

Earlier, in an interview with the media on Wednesday, Marcos had said there were “many, many Filipino nationals in Taiwan and that would be immediately a humanitarian problem” if there was a conflict in the Taiwan Strait. “To be very practical about it, if there is confrontation over Taiwan between China and the United States, there is no way that the Philippines can stay out of it simply because of our physical, geographic location”, he was quoted as saying.

“We will have to go in there, find a way to go in there, and find a way to bring our people home”. Beijing expressed “firm opposition” to the comments, arguing that “geographic location” and the “large volume of Filipinos” in Taiwan should not be used as pretexts to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

Marcos said the Philippines did not “want to go to war” and he was “perplexed” that China had characterised his comments as provocative. Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the United States, Japan and Australia, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state. However, Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.

Team Maverick