The United States knew that a war “about something so small” like the Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea was “not worth it”, President Rodrigo Duterte said Sunday, as he again conceded that the Philippines cannot rely on its long-standing Pacific ally to defend Manila’s interests in the vital sea lane. Scarborough, called by Filipinos as Panatag Shoal and by the Chinese as Huangyan Island, was the site of a 2012 standoff between the Philippines and China. The standoff erupted when Manila sent its biggest warship to chase off Chinese poachers. Duterte recalled how the US brokered a deal for the Philippines and China to withdraw their respective ships from the resource-rich fishing ground, “but China refused to follow” even though the Philippines pulled out its Navy flagship, BRP Gregorio del Pilar.

'War over Scarborough not worth it for the US'. (2019, April 23). Daily Guardian, p. 12.