Manila — The Philippines on Monday demanded that China stop confiscating the catch of Filipino fishermen in the disputed South China Sea, calling the practice "unacceptable". The remarks by President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman were a rare public rebuke from Manila, which has taken a non-confrontational approach with Beijing over the resource-rich waterway. China controls several reefs in the sea including Scarborough Shoal, which Beijing seized from Manila in 2012 and which is just 230km from the main Philippine island of Luzon. China claims almost the entire resource-rich sea, through which $5-trillion in trade passes annually, despite competing partial claims from Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque on Monday confirmed a report that Chinese Coast Guard personnel seized the catch of Filipino fishermen in the shoal in May in violation of an agreement between the two nations allowing Filipinos to fish there. "We have addressed this ...
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