Manila should reconsider who its friends are

The People's Liberation Army Southern Theater Air Force conducted a routine patrol in the airspace of China's Huangyan Island in the South China Sea on Tuesday. At the same time, the Philippines solicited countries outside the region to organize a so-called joint patrol to deliberately undermine peace and stability in the waters.

The latest provocative moves of the Philippines came after Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo's first phone call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Jan 22, in which the two sides talked about China's "dangerous and destabilizing actions" in the South China Sea, according to a readout of the US State Department on the talks.

Rubio "underscored the United States' ironclad commitments to the Philippines under our Mutual Defense Treaty", the State Department said in the statement.