Filipinos fear ‘armed conflict’ with China over sea row: Poll

MANILA: Eight in 10 Filipinos are worried a festering South China Sea territorial dispute could lead to “armed conflict” with the world’s most populous nation, an independent polling outfit said Friday.
Manila-based Social Weather Stations said this sentiment had weighed on people’s minds since the Philippines backed down from a tense standoff with China over control of rich fishing grounds around Scarborough Shoal in 2012.
The study showed 84 percent of 1,200 respondents were “worried” about armed conflict with China.
About half were “worried a great deal” while more than a third were “somewhat worried.”
The same poll has been conducted every year since 2012, and in each of the surveys at least 80 percent of respondents have been concerned that the sea dispute could escalate into a full-blown conflict with the Philippines’ powerful Asian neighbor.
“It is natural for us to worry about armed conflict as it is a fact that it does not benefit anyone,” presidential spokeswoman Abigail Valte told AFP, reacting to the survey results.
“This is precisely why our government has pursued peaceful means to resolving the dispute.”
The Scarborough Shoal standoff ended with Beijing taking control of the fishing area, which lies 220 km off the main Philippine island of Luzon. The shoal lies 650 km from Hainan island, the nearest major Chinese land mass.
China and the Philippines are also in dispute over other islands and reefs in the South China Sea, with the Philippines seeking arbitration from a United Nations-backed body. China has refused to participate in the proceedings.
Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims over the South China Sea, which hosts major shipping lanes and is believed to hold vast mineral reserves.