In perhaps the clearest sign yet of outgoing Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s fruitless strategic lean toward China, his chief diplomat has announced that bilateral energy-exploration talks in the South China Sea have collapsed. “The president had spoken. I carried out his instructions to the letter: Oil and gas discussions are terminated completely. Nothing is pending; everything is over,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr said in a major speech last week.

Heydarian, R. J. (2022, July 1). Philippines-China energy sharing dead in the water. Daily Guardian, p. 7.