‘PH should not provoke China’THE Philippines should not provoke China to use force to settle its maritime dispute with the Philippines even if Manila’s right over the West Philippine Sea had been upheld by the Permanent Court of Arbitration based in the Hague, former senator Francisco “Kit” Tatad said on Saturday. “What we could do is to make sure that China is not provoked into using force to resolve this issue,” Tatad said. He added that China is looking to recoup from the ruling through bilateral talks. We already won, would we still want to provoke them? Romana, chief of the American Broadcasting Company’s bureau in Beijing, is optimistic that the two parties will settle the issue.

Source: Manila Times July 16, 2016 14:27 UTC