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PHILIPPINES President Rodrigo Duterte moved to settle the long-running South China Sea row with China yesterday by declaring the disputed Scarborough Shoal a marine reserve.
Mr Duterte’s action would forbid any nation’s ships fishing in the shoal’s vast triangular lagoon but boats of all flags would be able to fish outside the sanctuary.
National security adviser Hermogenes Esperon did not say whether Mr Duterte discussed the idea with Chinese President Xi Jinping when they met at the weekend’s Asia-Pacific summit in Peru.
He called the move “a unilateral action from government.”
China seized the Scarborough Shoal in 2012 after a tense stand-off with the Philippines.
Mr Duterte’s predecessor Benigno Aquino took the dispute to an arbitration court in The Hague, but China does not recognise its jurisdiction.
Mr Aquino even compared China to nazi Germany in 2015, but Mr Duterte has mended ties with Beijing since his election this year.
