If China starts drilling for oil resources in the West Philippine Sea, President Duterte has vowed to send warships to lay claim to the resources in the disputed part of the waterway.

According to the President, the country would conduct its own oil drilling and “mine whatever is ours” if China would hold mineral exploration over the area.

Duterte, addressing the nation Monday night, said he wanted to "remain friends" with China but would insist on the need to "share" whatever oil and mineral resources that will found in the contested waters.

"Sinabi ko naman sa inyo sa Chinese government, I’m not so much interested now in fishing. I don’t think there’s enough fish really to quarrel about. But when we start to mine, when we start to get whatever it is in the bowels of the China Sea, sa ating oil, diyan na ako --- then by that time, I will send my ships there. I will send my gray ships there to stake a claim," Duterte said during a televised address Monday, April 19.

"‘Pag kinuha na ‘yang oil, kung anong mga nickel diyan and precious stones (If you get oil, nickel and precious stones, that would be the time because that is the time that we should act on it," he added, his remarks since authorities spotted more than 200 Chinese ships at a local reef last month.

Duterte maintained that he does not want any quarrel with China but if it begins mining for oil, he would confront the Asian giant.

"Pag mag-umpisa na sila ng drill ng oil diyan, sabihin ko talaga sa China (If they start drilling oil there, I will tell China), is that part of our agreement? Because if it is not part of our agreement, I’m going to also to excavate --- to drill my oil there. If you own it, I own it. I do not want a quarrel but that is how it is," he said.

But at present, Duterte refused to confront China over the territorial dispute amid concerns it would be "bloody."

He admitted that there was no way for the country to take back the sea "without any bloodshed.” And even if he travels to the West Philippine Sea, he conceded that "nothing will happen" since "we are not in the possession of the sea."

"I am ready. Ay anak ng jueteng… If just a matter of going there and looking for trouble and maybe violence, okay sa akin. But I said, at what cost would that be to the country?" he said.

"If we go there really to find out and to assert jurisdiction, I said, it would be bloody. It will result in a violence that we cannot maybe win," he added.

Tensions resurfaced in the region over the latest incursion of more than 200 Chinese ships in the West Philippine Sea last month.

The Philippines has protested the unlawful stay of more than 200 Chinese ships in the local waters and demanded their immediate pullout. Manila expressed concern that the presence of the Chinese ships posed a threat to safety of navigation, safety of life at sea, and impedes the exclusive right of Filipinos to benefit from the marine wealth in the executive economic zone.

China has ignored the Philippines' appeal, insisting the reef belonged to them and that the fishing vessels were taking shelter from bad sea condition.