China takes island-building skills to Duterte's backyard

Manila

AMONG the first to gain from Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's China pivot could be the people who live on rickety wooden stilt-houses in a waterlogged area of his hometown of Davao City.

Chinese investors are set to spend US$200 million to raise three islands from the sea to create a new port. Residents in the area known as Isla Verde aren't worried that one of the companies is CCCC Dredging Group Co, which helped turn a handful of rocks and reefs in the South China Sea into a chain of Chinese maritime outposts that threaten Philippine territorial claims.

"I don't care who builds the islands on the sea," said Eddie Piling, 43, whose makeshift house with no plumbing may have to be demolished to mak…