BEIJING-This is what President Rodrigo Duterte’s key Cabinet members have to say: Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr.: “(It means) separation from the economic and defence dependence of the past.”

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez: “I will let the official spokesperson speak on behalf of the President. But what I see is a positive move towards re-strengthening ties with Asian neighbours which historically have been our economic and trading partners for centuries.

The President has been establishing good rapport with Asian leaders like the ones he recently visited such as Laos, Indonesia, Brunei and now in China.

Other Asian countries are scheduled to be visited soon. The friendships regained are opening up deeper commitments in enhancing economic, trade and investment ties, reaffirming our vision of regional economic integration.

333028

Photo Gallery

Duterte in China to promote economic ties

Source:

Reuters

• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–

The highly successful meetings with top leaders of China, President Xi Jinping of China and Premier Li Kequiang have led to greater confidence in the future economic relationship of our two countries.

This trip resulted in several private business led agreements that summed up to US$13.5 billion of investment and financing agreements.

These are covered by MOAs (memorandum of agreements) signed yesterday Oct.20 and today, Oct 21.

The US$13.5 billion investments agreements would translate to an expected 2 million job generation in the next five years.

These are in the areas of industries, manufacturing, agribusiness, trade finance, hotels, telecom, tourism, transportation, ecozones, industrial parks and infrastructure projects.

Read also: Wrong for Philippines to cut ties with US due to alliance with China: Senator

The renewed friendships in this part of the world has opened huge opportunities for Philippines’ trade and investment in the China and ASEAN market of over 1.9 billion people across the region.

We will maintain relations with our other partners but we would revive the stronger integration with our neighbours.

We share centuries of trading, similar culture and a better understanding with our region.

For China alone, they continue to be the Philippines’ second major trading partner with US$17 billion value in total trade.

Our exports to China was US$6 billion in 2015 but this still has high growth potential as we establish better relations and considering China’s total imports was around $2 trillion in 2015.

Another promising area again is investment from China. Their investment to the Philippines (Investment Promotion Agency- approved) dropped to only US$32 million in 2015.

But China’s total outward investments was around US$130 billion in 2015.

In re-establishing a region of peace in Asia, many are more optimistic in seeing trade and investment levels soar to greater heights.” Joint Statement of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez and Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia

“The president just gave a very important speech. The cabinet will move strongly and swiftly towards regional economic integration. This is why the president prioritized foreign trips to ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and Asia.

As a result, The Philippines has now opened its opportunities for trade and investment to a market of 1.8 billion people across the region. ASEAN economies have expressed interest in integration. China has committed to open its capital markets.

We will maintain relations with the west but we desire stronger integration with our neighbours. We share the culture and a better understanding with our region.

This regional integration is similar to what has been done in the EU and NAFTA in North America and Mercosur (sub-regional bloc) in South America. The Philippines is integrating with ASEAN China, Japan and South Korea.

In a way, Asian economic integration is long overdue compared with the regional economic integrations.”

Compiled by Doris Dumlao-Abadilla in Beijing

The usually frenetic streets of Hong Kong were deserted Friday as the city was battered by Typhoon Haima after the storm left a trail of deaths and damage in the Philippines.

More than 700 flights in and out of Hong Kong were cancelled or delayed, roads were clear of cars and pavements empty, with schools and offices shut as the storm passed east of the city and hit southern mainland China.

Trading on the city’s stock exchange was also cancelled for the day.

As Haima swept past Hong Kong in the early afternoon, trees were felled by winds, and waves crashed over coastal roads.

333160

Photo Gallery

Hong Kong in lockdown as Typhoon Haima nears

Source:

Reuters

• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–

At 2:00 pm (0600 GMT) Haima’s centre was 110 kilometres to the northeast of Hong Kong as the storm made landfall near Shanwei in China’s southern Guangdong province, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.

The observatory issued a Number 8 storm signal Friday – the third-highest warning level.

“As the western part of Haima’s eye wall is rather close to Hong Kong, gales will affect the territory for some time,” the observatory said.

It warned the public to stay away from the shoreline due to rough seas, but many residents turned storm watchers.

In the western neighbourhood of Kennedy Town people laughed and joked as they were soaked by waves.

“I’m from Nepal and I used to live by a lake. I like playing with the water. I’m not afraid of the water,” said one resident who gave his name as Raju.

Others jogged, fished and practised tai chi as the storm rolled in.

Rain poured down into the early afternoon and wind gusted up to 105 kilometres per hour.

Ferry services including the city’s famous cross-harbour Star Ferry were cancelled.

Hong Kong’s flagship carrier Cathay Pacific said it expected “significant disruptions” to its flights between 11:00 am and 10:00 pm (0300 GMT to 1400 GMT) Friday.

Underground metro train services were also reduced and all buses cancelled.

The government has set up more than 20 shelters and the city is expected to remain in lockdown for most of Friday until the storm passes.

It comes after a week of downpours in Hong Kong that brought severe flooding to some parts of the city.

Traffic was caught in torrents of water flowing down main roads on Wednesday as the observatory issued its severest “black rainstorm” warning.

One elderly man became a local hero after online images of him calmly reading a newspaper in a flooded branch of Starbucks went viral, earning him the nickname “Starbucks uncle”.

Haima, which means “seahorse” in Chinese, has wreaked havoc in the Philippines where it brought ferocious gales and landslides.

Tens of thousands of homes were destroyed and at least eight people are reported dead so far.

When it hit the Philippines late Wednesday night, Haima was categorised as a super typhoon.

333146

Photo Gallery

Typhoon Haima kills at least 8 in Philippines

Source:

AFP

• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–

It has since been downgraded to a typhoon as wind speeds at its centre have dropped from 200 kilometres an hour to 145 kilometres an hour.

Read also: Taiwanese woman snacks on bun during typhoon, becomes online sensation

The Philippines will maintain trade and economic ties with the United States, Trade Minister Ramon Lopez said on Friday, a day after President Rodrigo Duterte announced his “separation” from Washington.

Duterte made his comments in Beijing, where he was paving the way for what he calls a new commercial alliance as relations with long-time ally Washington deteriorate.

“With that, in this venue, your honours, in this venue, I announce my separation from the United States,” Duterte told Chinese and Philippine business people to applause at a forum in the Great Hall of the People.

“Both in military, not maybe social, but economics also.”

Duterte’s efforts to engage China, months after a tribunal in the Hague ruled that Beijing did not have historic rights to the South China Sea in a case brought by the previous administration in Manila, marks a reversal in foreign policy since the 71-year-old former mayor took office on June 30.

Lopez sought to explain Duterte’s comments.

“Let me clarify. The president did not talk about separation,” Lopez told CNN Philippines in Beijing.

“In terms of economic (ties), we are not stopping trade, investment with America. The president specifically mentioned his desire to strengthen further the ties with China and the ASEAN region which we have been trading with for centuries.” He said the Philippines was “breaking being too much dependent on one side”.

“But we definitely won’t stop the trade and investment activities with the West, specifically the US”

333028

Photo Gallery

Duterte in China to promote economic ties

Source:

Reuters

• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–

ANTI-US PROTEST

Duterte’s tone towards China is in stark contrast to the language he has used against the United States, after being infuriated by US criticism of his bloody war on drugs.

He has called US President Barack Obama a “son of a b****”and told him to “go to hell”. On Wednesday, about 1,000 anti-US protesters gathered outside the US Embassy in Manila calling for the removal of US troops from the southern island of Mindanao.

The United States, a former colonial power, has seen Manila as an important ally in its “rebalance” of resources to Asia in the face of a rising China. The US Embassy press attache in Manila, Molly Koscina, said Duterte’s statements were creating uncertainty.

“We’ve seen a lot of this sort of troubling rhetoric recently which is inexplicably at odds with the warm relationship that exists between the Filipino and American people and the record of important co-operation between our two governments,” she told Reuters in an email. “We have yet to hear from the Philippine government what Duterte’s remarks on ‘separation’ might mean, but it is creating unnecessary uncertainty.”

She also said the United States would honour alliance commitments and treaty obligations with the Philippines. “And, of course, we expect the Philippines to do the same.” US Defence Secretary Ash Carter said Washington intended to keep to its alliance commitments to the Philippines.

“Obviously any relationship is one of mutuality and we will continue to discuss that with our Philippine counterparts,” he told reporters before landing in Turkey. “That’s not new today, but that’s our alliance relationship with the Philippines.”

“NO RUSH TO INTERPRET”

Marie Banaag, assistant secretary at the Philippine presidential communications office, urged the public to wait for guidelines before interpreting Duterte’s announcement. “There is no rush for us to interpret the speech of the president as we have to wait for guidelines that would be coming from him, from the Department of Foreign Affairs, as soon as they come back,” she said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, asked in Beijing about Duterte’s comments, said countries should not resort to win-lose mentalities.

“As far as China is concerned, we think that at present in international relations we should not have Cold War thinking, it’s either you or me, you win I lose, that kind of zero-sum game,” she told a regular press briefing.

“We have always developed relations with other countries in the spirit of openness, inclusiveness, mutually win-win, not aimed at, not excluding and not affecting other countries developing normal relations with each other.” Duterte said in Beijing that he had “realigned (himself) in your ideological flow” and “America has lost now”.

“Maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to (President Vladimir) Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world – China, Philippines and Russia,” he said. “It’s the only way.” Wrangling over territory in the South China Sea, where neighbours Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims, has consumed China-Philippines relations in recent years.

China claims most of the energy-rich waters through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, and in 2012 it seized the disputed Scarborough Shoal and denied Philippine fishermen access to its fishing grounds.

In a joint statement issued by China’s official Xinhua news agency, China and the Philippines said it was important to address differences in the South China Sea “without resorting to the threat or use of force”.