We have received reports of airstrikes which hit Iran. We are in the process of getting more information.
In the meantime, the safety of Filipino citizens in Iran and in the Middle East is paramount. I have instructed the DFA and the DMW to take measures to determine their whereabouts in affected areas and to take immediate measures to ensure their safety.
Yet another propaganda video has been released by the China Coast Guard, proudly portraying what they describe as “routine law-enforcement patrols” within the waters of Bajo de Masinloc. As usual, the footage is carefully edited to project an image of complete control and legitimacy.
In reality, however, these heavily publicized Chinese patrols have consistently failed to respond to repeated radio challenges issued by the Philippine Coast Guard and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources over the past several days. Despite being clearly hailed on VHF Channel 16, the Chinese vessels have maintained radio silence, offering no acknowledgment, no justification, and no rebuttal to the Philippine authorities’ lawful assertions of jurisdiction.
What makes this latest video particularly noteworthy is that the scripted radio challenge broadcast by the China Coast Guard once again includes the boilerplate declaration that China has “indisputable sovereignty” over Scarborough Shoal and its adjacent waters.
This is precisely why China cannot and will not engage in a substantive radio exchange with Philippine forces. The Philippine Coast Guard’s challenges are firmly grounded in international law specifically the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the final and binding 2016 Arbitral Award, which categorically invalidated China’s sweeping “nine-dash lies.”
China, on the other hand, has no credible legal response. Its claim rests entirely on the historically baseless and legally repudiated “nine-dash lies” a relic of 1940s cartographic ambition that was resoundingly rejected by the 2016 tribunal. Unable to defend its position under modern international law, Beijing resorts to the only tools left in its playbook: physical intimidation, selective video propaganda, and the repeated assertion of “indisputable sovereignty” as though sheer repetition could somehow transform fiction into fact.
In short, these videos are not evidence of lawful presence; they are admissions of legal weakness. The refusal to answer lawful radio challenges, combined with the stubborn reliance on a thoroughly debunked claim, only underscores that China’s actions in Bajo de Masinloc are neither routine nor legitimate they are deliberate, sustained violations of Philippine sovereignty and international law.
Ang nasisi nuon bakit denied ang interim release ni Duterte was Sara Duterte’s own big mouth – kinidnap daw si Tatay, ije-jailbreak daw si Tatay, etc.
Ngayon, ang sabi ng ICC bakit denied ang appeal eh dahil sa “network of supporters” ni Duterte aka mga DDS.
Iyak! 😭😂👊