The two countries have long been embroiled in a bitter dispute over their competing claims to the region – with China claiming nearly the entire sea – but Duterte has in recent years softened his predecessors’ policy of opposing Beijing’s claims. Duterte said Wednesday an arrangement to turn two of the rival claimants virtual joint owners of the strategic and supposedly oil and gas-rich sea was preferable to the “massacre” of Filipino troops in a war with China.

PH in talks with China on joint sea exploration. (2018, March 2). Panay News, pp. 7, 14.