Philippine ready to protect West Sea: president

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Philippine ready to protect West Sea: president

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Philippine President Aquino has said his country is ready to use military force to protect West Sea.

03 August,2011 10:03 pm

Addressing to Congress, Aquino said the Philippines would no longer allow other countries to enforce their will over it. He said that there was a time when we couldn’t appropriately respond to threats in our own backyard adding that now our message to the world was clear.Manila accused Chinese navy boats of harassing a Philippine-commissioned oil exploration vessel near Recto Bank in March, one of the incidents that triggered a dramatic rise in bilateral tensions.Foreign Secretary Alberto Del Rosario said that China’s aggressive actions in the West Philippine Sea appear to be motivated by a hunger to exploit the area’s rich oil and gas resources. He rejected the Chinese claim, saying it had no validity under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which China is a signatory.