Q: You had enough of your power nap from yesterday sir? That was enough?
PRESIDENT DUTERTE: Still not good enough. But enough to sustain the endurance for the last day’s… Why — what’s wrong with my nap? I do not… You know, I don’t eat — I don’t eat breakfast. And I’m sure you ladies do know that. We don’t eat breakfast.
Q: So you’re attending sir all the meetings today?
PRESIDENT DUTERTE: Yes.
Q: Even the ASEAN-US Summit — you’re attending the ASEAN-US Summit?
PRESIDENT DUTERTE: Am I supposed to meet the US…
Q: So you’re skipping the ASEAN-US Summit?
PRESIDENT DUTERTE: I’ll see.
Q: Ah you’ll see sir.
PRESIDENT DUTERTE: I’ll see. Maybe I’ll come back to you to consult then I…
Q: Why will you skip, sir? Sorry, the ASEAN-US Summit? Just for clarification.
PRESIDENT DUTERTE: No, I am not. I said, I’ll see.
Q: Ah you’ll see?
PRESIDENT DUTERTE: I said maybe. Could be. Can be a possibility.
Q: Sir, are you meeting with Mr. Abe later?
PRESIDENT DUTERTE: Yes.
Q: What will you be raising with him?
PRESIDENT DUTERTE: Many things. About COC and of course trade and commerce and the peninsula — the impasse there.
Q: The Korean Peninsula, sir?
PRESIDENT DUTERTE: Also.
Q: Sir, are you okay with the three-year timeline target for COC?
PRESIDENT DUTERTE: Well, you know I’m the country coordinator for ASEAN-China. I will try my best. I made a very strong statement yesterday about the urgent need for a COC so that everybody will know.
Because when you claim an ocean, the whole of it, then that is a new development in today’s world.
So any sense, it would also change — radical changes in the laws of governing international waters, particularly the right of free passage or the right of innocent passage.
And all of these things, China is there. That’s a reality and America and everybody should realize that they are there.
So if you just keep on creating friction, little friction, one day a bad miscalculation could turn things — Murphy’s Law. If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong.
Q: Sir, you don’t think it’s wise to hold military drills in the South China Sea especially…?
PRESIDENT DUTERTE: No because — it’s not military drills because I said China is already in possession. It’s now in their hands. So why do you have to create frictions — strong fri — military activity that will prompt a response from China?
I do not mind everybody going to war, except that the Philippines is just beside those islands. And if there’s a shooting there, my country will be the first to suffer. That’s my only in — that is my only national interest there. Nothing else.
— END —
SOURCE: PCOO – PND (Presidential News Desk)
