Refusing to follow us duterte: not participating in South China Sea exercises

“President duterte has issued an order to us, and to me, that we should not participate in Sea exercises in the South China Sea except in our own waters, that is, within nautical miles of our coastline,” Lorenzana said < / P > < p > for Washington, the importance of the Philippines goes beyond the South China Sea, which is also crucial to the US strategy of competing with China in the broader Indian Pacific region. The U.S. Marine Corps has put forward a kind of operational concept, which suggests that the U.S. Army should be dispersed to multiple islands in Asia and the Pacific region, making it more difficult for the enemy to find, track and target them. If you can’t use the Philippines, it’s hard to do that.