President Duterte dismissed what happened in Reed Bank on June 9 where a Chinese fishing boat “Yuemaobinyu 42212” rammed a Philippine fishing boat, F/B Gimver 1 which threw the 22 Filipino fishermen into the waters in the darkness of the night until they were rescued by a Vietnamese fishing boat, as just a “maritime incident.”
“Banggaan lang ng barko ‘yan,” Duterte said at the121ST anniversary of the Philippine at Sangley Sangley Point in Cavite City, Monday, finally breaking his eight-day silence that has riled up concerned citizens over what many perceive as his subservience to China.
Yet he also said he does not want to issue a statement “because there is no investigation and there is no result.”
I’m reproducing here portions of his speech about the incident. This is a test in finding sanity amid the incoherence: