MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines used his annual address to Congress on Monday (July 22) to defend his government’s conciliatory stance toward China and his controversial drug war, which has left more than 6,600 people dead.

Mr Duterte has come under particular criticism lately over his approach to China, setting off large-scale protests last month when he argued that there was little he could do to assert his country’s sovereignty in the face of Beijing’s military might.

On Monday, the president told lawmakers that dealing with Beijing compelled him “to perform a delicate balancing act.”

Mr Duterte, who took power in 2016, is halfway through a six-year term, and in his speech, he touted various achievements, including his anti-corruption efforts and moves to cut red tape.

Mr Duterte also signed last week a landmark law on sexual harassment, and one finalising a peace deal with insurgents and establishing an autonomous Muslim homeland in the country’s restive south. But discussion of the country’s tense relations with China and its drug war eclipsed other accomplishments.

“We are now entering a period of consequences,” Mr Duterte said. “The consequences of what we did and did not do but should have done during my first half of my term. I assume full responsibility for that.”

The public had been angered when a Chinese vessel rammed into a Philippine fishing boat, leaving 22 fishermen floating in the sea until they were rescued by a boat from Vietnam. Mr Duterte played down the incident.

“A shooting war is a grief and misery multiplier,” he said. “War leaves widows and orphans in its wake. I am not ready or inclined to accept the occurrence of more destruction, more widows and more orphans should war — even at a limited scale — break out.”

He argued that better results could be achieved “in the privacy of a conference room than in a squabble in public.”

On that basis, Mr Duterte said he was determined to act peacefully, “mindful of the fact that national pride and territorial integrity are at stake.”

Much of the tension in the relationship between China and the Philippines stems from their competing claims in the South China Sea. Mr Duterte said that he raised the territorial disputes with President Xi Jinping of China early in his term but was warned by the Chinese leader that pressing the issue could “mean trouble.”

Mr Duterte said that China had already installed guided missiles in the South China Sea that could reach the Philippine capital, Manila, within minutes.

“Do you want war?” he asked in a question apparently directed at nationalist groups. After receiving such a warning from Mr Xi, he said, “What can I do?”

He also appeared to blame his predecessor, Mr Benigno S. Aquino III, for losing the Scarborough Shoal, a reef that is claimed by both China and the Philippines. He said Mr Aquino’s government had allowed Beijing to take possession of it in 2012 when he withdrew the Philippine coast guard from the area in the face of a Chinese blockade.

Under Mr Aquino, the Philippines brought its case to an international tribunal in The Hague, which in 2016 rejected China’s argument that it enjoys historic rights over most of the South China Sea.

But Mr Duterte has not pressured China to accept the ruling, instead making a point of appeasing Beijing by visiting often and courting billions of dollars in investment pledges.

On Monday, he told Congress that even if he sent the Philippine military to drive the Chinese away from the disputed maritime area, “I guarantee you, not one of them will come home alive.”

Mr Fernando Hicap, chairman of the fishermen’s group Pamalakaya, criticised Duterte’s speech as “warmongering,” saying that protecting the interests of the Philippines should be a matter of national policy.

“Nobody wants to have a war with any country,”Mr  Hicap said. “What we demand is justice and for the rights of Filipino fishers to be respected in our own marine territory.”

He added, “Asserting what is rightfully ours is not tantamount to declaring war with the aggressor.”

Mr Hicap said fishermen were not satisfied with Mr Duterte’s promise that he would address China more forcefully “in due time.” He argued that the tribunal’s ruling should be enforced immediately.

“Now more than ever is the time to resolve this dispute,” he said.

On the domestic front, Mr Duterte said he would continue with his drug war. The campaign is the subject of a preliminary inquiry by the International Criminal Court, from which the Philippines withdrew earlier this year. It is also being investigated by the United Nations Human Rights Council after a vote by member nations this month.

Mr Duterte joked that he was prepared to go to jail over the drug war deaths as long as he had a “comfortable cell” and “unlimited” conjugal visits. THE NEW YORK TIMES