DAVAO CITY – Former President Rodrigo Duterte claimed that Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian told him that the Philippines will not be spared if it allows the United States to utilize its military installations in the country to launch an aggressive action against China.
During his program Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa aired over SMNI News, Duterte said that the Chinese envoy conveyed to him, during their recent meeting, that even the Philippines, one of the strongest allies of China, would become a target once US forces initiate an attack against it.
“I reminded him (Chinese Ambassador) again that the Philippines does not have a quarrel with China,” Duterte said, “but his answer to me was, ‘if you provide places where there can be an aggressive action to China, the Philippines would always be a target.’”
Duterte admitted meeting with Huang regularly.
“I am not a lackey of China. I do not want to be subservient to any country. Neither would I be a protector or spokesman of America. I am just a Filipino,” the former commander-in-chief stressed.
He urged both governments of the Philippines and the US to inform the Filipino people about the US military bases under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) that have actually been established in the country.
Duterte claimed EDCA sites have grown to 17 locations across the country.
“In the interest of the public’s right to know, there should be an open discussion. Americans should come clean and give us a truthful narration or narrative or an explanation and identify the places where they have installed bases here in the Philippines,” he said.
He said the Marcos administration should be “open for discussion” because it would affect the Filipino people who “would be facing a war not of our own making” if tensions between US and China would escalate.
Duterte, who disallowed EDCA during his time as President, said that the US could bring “nuclear warheads” to its military installations in the country.
“I said by granting America several bases, we can be sure and I am sure as the Sun will rise in the east that these nuclear bases…will have nuclear warheads,” he said.
Duterte feared that the “the next war or wars will be fought mainly using nuclear warheads.”
“We don’t know because of EDCA, they are bringing in some right now. There is no accounting of the weapons in the hands of Americans to use against China if war breaks out. But we can be sure and it would be stupid for us or so naive to think that there is none,” he said.
Duterte said that the consequence of a US attack on China would be a retaliation with nuclear arms against the Philippines.
“You (US) who are farther away have ‘anti-missiles’ missiles. You can shoot them down before they can enter your airspace. The problem is here in the Philippines. What are the stakes for us? Nothing,” he said.
He said a nuclear weapon could affect a “wide area” leaving radioactive materials that could last for 50 years.
“It would not only be destructive. I believe that the Philippines would be a graveyard, if war comes. Remember that,” he said.
He said he does not welcome US military installations as he does not welcome the possible catastrophic consequence of a possible war between US and China.