Duterte: Separation doesn't mean severing ties with US

"It deserves the Filipino people's accolades, especially those of the tourism stakeholders who stand to benefit from the increased influx of visitors from all over China", Teo said.

Yasay said in a Facebook (NASDAQ:) posting that Duterte had "unmistakably" stated that severing ties with Washington was not in the nation's interest.

He, however, indicated that under his leadership, the Philippine government will no longer abide by the practice of previous administrations of automatically taking the cue from U.S. foreign policy.

"Napag-usapan namin pero (We talked about it but), no, no - I'll leave it to them to - that's one of the things I said that in the private talks which I can not [disclose]", said Duterte.

"It's not severance of ties", Mr Duterte said in a televised briefing in Davao city around midnight Friday, after returning from Beijing.

When you say severance of ties, you cut the diplomatic relations.

Davao City-After declaring in Beijing that he would align the Philippines with China and Russia "against the world", President Rodrigo Duterte pressed his courtship of Moscow and said he cares little for the results of the United States presidential elections and would rather bet on his favorite hero Russian President Vladimir Putin. In Beijing, China on Thursday, he said matter-of-factly that he is cutting off military and economic ties to the United States.

Bambang Purwanto, director of worldwide department at Indonesia's Antara News Agency, said Duterte has made a good start on relations with China and the two countries should strike for positive results from the current visit to create a good atmosphere.

The president said in Davao that he didn't surrender anything to China during the visit, particularly the Philippines' rights to disputed territory in the South China Sea that was bolstered by a Permanent Court of Arbitration decision in July that China's efforts to assert control over area exceeded the law. The tribunal said China had not historic rights to territories within its so-called "nine-dash line", which encompasses nearly the whole South China Sea, and upheld the Philippines' claim to areas within its exclusive economic zone.

However, on Friday, Duterte seemed to walk back his previous statement.

"It has not really appeased me at all". In September, he called President Obama a "son of a whore".

This could signal to other countries that in handling conflicts with China, it is best to put aside disputes and focus on cooperation, said Xu Liping, an Asean researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. They added they have resumed dialogue on the South China Sea.

Pierre Picquart, an expert in Geopolitics and China at the University of Paris VIII, told Xinhua that Duterte has chosen the path of reason "rather than promoting geopolitical, economic and territorial tensions about the South China Sea, and unlike his predecessor Benigno Aquino".