South China Sea: ‘stop harassing us’, Philippines foreign minister urges Beijing

“It’s merely trying to inform the people of what’s going on,” Manolo said. “And some countries or one country at least has some difficulty with that.”

“But our simple explanation is if you would stop harassing us and, and perhaps performing other actions, there wouldn’t be any news to report.”

Philippine governments have tried to rally international and regional support to their cause – with mixed results.

“The Philippines is committed to a peaceful resolution of disputes through diplomatic means, or peaceful means,” Manalo said, while insisting “this will not be done at the expense of our national interest”.

“We are reaching out to partners in like-minded countries with similar issues and similar concerns.”

The two countries are treaty allies, meaning Washington has formally pledged to come to Manila’s defence in the event of a military conflict.

“Every country in the world is probably thinking of that, of course. The United States is a major, it’s a treaty ally of the Philippines. So obviously, any differences or changes in US policy from existing policies would most likely have some kind of effect.”

“At this stage it’s fairly difficult to assess how it would happen, or what would happen,” he said. “But all I can say is we are, of course, carefully monitoring the election season in the United States, but I’ve had talks with many of my other colleagues from other countries, and I think everybody is doing the same.”

“So certainly all eyes will be riveted on that election this year.”

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Chinese floating barrier blocks entrance to Philippine ships at South China Sea flashpoint

Also on Monday, the Philippines deployed a coastguard vessel to carry out a two-week patrol mission in waters north and east of the country to intensify its