By Genalyn Kabiling Going to war with China over the West Philippines dispute will be "reckless" and "dangerous" since the Philippines will likely end up getting annihilated, President Duterte said. President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (ACE MORANDANTE / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN) For now, he said he would rather promote friendly trade and investment relations with China than beat the war drums and send troops and ships to the disputed territory. "I cannot afford a stand where I will be drumming my war drums because we cannot afford it. It would annihilate the Philippines and so that is very dangerous," Duterte said in a recent interview with Russian television network RT. "The Spratly Islands are near our islands, our provincial islands. The local government of the Philippines is near there and so it would be a reckless move if it send out, just like Vietnam, small vessels only to get a bloody nose at the end of the day," he added. Duterte also expressed concern that the United States might take advantage of the situation and aggravate the conflict in the guise of defending the Philippines. The Philippines and the United States are strategic defense allies. A mutual defense pact states they would come to each other’s aid in case any of them encounters an armed attack in the Pacific area. "The response might not be that contained if I get to move because of the so many American ships here. They might just also want to take advantage and make a pretext that they're defending the Philippines,” Duterte said. Duterte insisted that he would not endanger the lives of Filipinos by risking a war with China. Instead, he found it prudent to advance bilateral relations with China and let “time" deal with the territorial conflict. "The war with China at this time is not of use to us. We might as well just to be friendly, improve our trade and commerce. Let time heal its...Tomorrow will take care of itself," he said. "Like any historical claim, the world is always changing. We do not really do at the expense of the lives of Filipinos." The President has previously ruled out the use of force in resolving the territorial dispute with China to avoid putting the lives of Filipinos in danger. Instead, the Duterte administration has pursued bilateral dialogue to manage the conflict while pursuing closer economic and security ties with the Asian giant. In July 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague ruled in favor the Philippines in the South China Sea dispute. The tribunal declared that China has no legal basis to claim historic rights within the area falling within its so-called nine-dash line. Beijing, however, refused to recognize the tribunal's decision. The President recently disclosed that Xi pledged to give the Philippines a bigger share of the revenues from the exploration project as long as it sets aside the arbitral award that nullified China's claims in the disputed area. The government, however, refused to drop or abandon the arbitral ruling on the South China Sea dispute in favor of pursuing a joint oil project.