Duterte wants China’s help to ‘blow pirates up in high seas’

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he wants China to help guard the major sea lane in Southeast Asia to address piracy and terrorism in the region’s waters. “We’ll just have to call China to come in and blow them off just like Somalia,” Inquirer quoted him as saying before departing for India on Wednesday. Duterte addressed ASEAN member states, whose leaders were gathering for the India Summit in New Delhi from January 24 to 26. “I go for a hardline policy. Blow them up in the high seas,” the president was cited as saying. The waters surrounding Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines are considered a haven for kidnap-for-ransom terrorists.