China won't stop until they've taken over Scarborough Shoal - Gibo | DZMM TeleRadyo

Courtesy of DZMM TeleRadyo. China will not stop its aggressive activities in Bajo de Masinloc, also known as Scarborough Shoal, because they have plans to take over the area, Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. said Friday. The Philippine Navy has spotted two warships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and one ship of the China Coast Guard (CCG) near Bajo de Masinloc, also known as Scarborough Shoal, during maritime patrols in the West Philippine Sea on Thursday. “Hind ‘yan titigil hangga’t hindi tayo manindigan at palakasin ang ating sarili at mataboy ‘yan,” Teodoro said in a DZMM interview. “Hindi sila titigil dahil may balak silang sakupin ‘yan,” he added. Teodoro said the Philippines is exhausting all legal means to avoid further conflict but Beijing has refused to engage. Other nations such as Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand have also been subjected to China’s maneuvering to take over different maritime areas, he said. He also rejected Vice-President Sara Duterte’s comment that the Philippines is becoming a “troublemaker” in Southeast Asia, saying the country is merely protecting its own territory. Bajo de Masinloc is a ring-shaped coral atoll with an inner lagoon and scattered rocks about 124 nautical miles west of mainland Zambales, well within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone. Beijing claims most of the South China Sea despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, and Philippine and Chinese ships have engaged in repeated confrontations in recent years, some leading to collisions and injuries. China's ambassador to Manila Jing Quan on Thursday said Beijing could "easily win" a conflict with the Philippines, though it would never choose force, comments the archipelago nation said could be read as a "thinly veiled threat." "If we want to use force, we may easily win. But no, we will not choose force, and we love peace," he said after giving a speech at a school in Manila. The Department of Foreign Affairs said the ambassador’s comments were "hardly helpful" and seemed to “convey a thinly veiled threat of the use of force.” Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Rear Admiral Jay Tarriela had earlier called Jing's pronouncement a "direct threat". "No people feel fortunate when a larger neighbor repeatedly violates the law and then tells them to be thankful it was not worse," he said in a post on X. "Not using force against a country whose rights you are already violating is not peace. It is coercion by other means!" he said, adding that Philippine coast guard personnel were often subjected to ramming and water cannons. David Dizon, ABS-CBN News; and Agence France-Presse For more DZMM TeleRadyo videos, click the link below:    • DZMM Teleradyo   For more Breaking News & Live Coverage videos, click the link below:    • Breaking News & Live Coverage   For more latest news and analysis from ABS-CBN News videos, click the link below:    • The latest news and analysis from ABS-CBN ...   For more News Digital News Raw Cuts, click the link below:    • News Digital Raw Cuts   Subscribe to the ABS-CBN News channel! - http://bit.ly/TheABSCBNNews Watch full episodes on iWant for FREE here: http://iwanttfc.com Visit our website at http://news.abs-cbn.com Facebook:   / abscbnnews   Twitter:   / abscbnnews   Instagram:   / abscbnnews   #WestPhilippineSea #ScarboroughShoal #PeoplesRepublicOfChina #DZMMTeleRadyo #ABSCBNNews