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.