China builds a monument on Kagitingan Reef that the Philippines claims as part of its territory in South China Sea and President Duterte announces he will sail to Benham Rise, an underwater plateau east of Luzon that has been declared part of the country’s extended continental shelf, to show the world that he will die for a land mass that is not even part of Philippine territory. In his speech before the Free Masons at the SMX Convention Center in Davao City April 26, Duterte again justified his selling out to China based on mistaken assumptions. He said: “I assure you. Who in the world would like or relish to kill his own countrymen? Precisely I said, with the issue of the China Sea, leave it at that, it’s geopolitics.

Tordesillas, E. (2018, May 1). Benham Rise trip: Duterte's latest comedy act. The Daily Guardian, p. 5.