Duterte says goodbye to the u.s whilst in China

Is any one looking at Chiang Ma Thailand as part of their exit plan. I have a few friends that moved there. First comment is that internet works. Does anyone else have other informtion. If Duterte continues in his anti US positions as noted in thread main post, whether it is just his ranting or real, is just seems necessary to do more research and preparation for an exit plan of the Philippines. Yesterday demonstrations in front of the US Embassy in Manila turned violet... PNP against Filipinos but soon the US will get the blame. It does not seem like many of Deturte's domestic enemies have fare well lately My concern is how long will it take to have individual American Citizens pinpointed as enemies of the Philippines or Filipino people?

 

This is the way it started in 1986. Protests at the embassy will spread to the other provinces. I was hold up inside my house in Olongapo for a week before I finally got escorted to Manila for a flight to Cubi Point Naval Air station. This time it will probably take longer to spread to the rest of the country. How long? Any bodies guess is as good as the others. I would suggest that registering your location with the embassy of your home country would be a good idea.

 

Gotta hand it to Duterte. He has balls. If China doesn't quickly deliver, then he's going to take a massive hit to his popularity.

This is a risky move, but I like the bet he made. China is grabbing territory and there is nothing the Philippines can do about it. They can either protest and get nothing or they can embrace the Chinese and get as much as they can from it.

I could be talking out of my @ss here, but this could help ease tensions in the South China Sea. This is a potential flash point and Duterte just handed a huge strategic piece to the Chinese. If China wins the match, then the U.S. goes home and there is little more to fight over. If the Philippines were to instead double down in the opposite direction, then the burner would just get hotter.

The protests were against the U.S. military presence. The U.S. just seems to be waiting for the proper paperwork to be filed. Hopefully the U.S. will pull up stakes and quickly GTFO so that we don't see more problems.

I feel secure here. Thailand is still ruled by the military, going there would seem like a backwards move.

This goes to show that Duterte is willing to make bold moves. Any argument we could make about any sort of benefits the Philippines receives from U.S. aid and tourism goes out the window. He don't give a ****. And one of the docments they signed has to do with tourism. Maybe we'll be seeing a lot more Chinese tourists here.

 

It is my understanding that the Philippines won the world court victory based on the fact that it was established that the "islands" were really rocks and China had not established a "living civilization" with the land forms they claimed. (Please correct me if I am wrong.) Ok so Duerte wins fishing rights he really never lost but gives China the "rocks", and they turn the rocks into actually small scale civilized islands then what happens, maybe with landing strips and radar stations too? Would that not the defeat the argument that the Philippines put forth that China had not established a beachhead in the area. So as the Filipinos are happily fishing the areas, China will build the structures to the extent necessary to claim the area, and adjoining economic zones? I do not believe China has become the force they are today by making dumb moves in the world arena. Duterte has been given great applause by Filipinos as being a great strategist but it seem like he may just be losing the war while fishing for food only to loose everything in the long run. If that the way it turns out he will not be remember as a great strategist. He seems to be driven to settle old grudges that may blind his view of reality of today's adversarial environment. China through their aggressive behavoir and deviance of the court decisions surely seems to have a leg up on the situation over the Philippines, and its long term ally the US. This bully like position of China may be the reason Duterte is negotiating for fishing rights that have already been awarded to him by the world court. Time will tell as we are all make a lot of projections here at the current moment.

It has been noted by a Supreme court Justice that if Duterte does not defend the Philippines territory properties that he may be doing an impeachable action. Philippine Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio warned President Rodrigo Duterte that he may face impeachment if he does not protect sovereign rights would amount to violation of the Constitution. Duterte has agreed with Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio's position. This may get interesting ...

 

Nah, he didn't make that agreement. He's just pushing it under the rug while he tries to get everything he can from China.

And now there is this...

Duterte's economic team clarifies: PHL to maintain ties with West, pursue regional integration

His economic team is already trying to patch things up.

 

I have said elsewhere that China would be stupid to wage war where simple migration would do the job. China has been working to get farms going on the rocks for several months already. China should have been homesteading those rocks for years, as I think their claim would have prevailed in court if they had. The Philippines should have been homesteading those rocks for years so the US would have to defend them under the mutual defense treaty but the Philippines didn't do that.

I think Duterte is unhappy that though the Philippines won in court the US is not going to war over unpopulated rocks, unpopulated in the sense that there are no Filipinos there, not that there aren't any Chinese on them.

I'm sure that foreign companies offered to lease the rights to produce petrochemicals from the area claimed by the Philippines but I think it likely that the Philippines asked for 60% or other unreasonable amount of the proceeds. Um, that would be the Aquino administration. However the Philippines got in this situation, they are looking at a big fat zero now.

 

Walked back pretty quick, must have been on a choke leash.

Maybe someone figured out that if the ties to the US were really and truly CUT...then the Philippines really has little to trade on with China.