President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said if a full-scale war between the United States and China erupted over the Taiwan invasion, the Philippines will get involved.

The President said it is inevitable for the Philippines to engage to be able to protect Philippine territory due to its proximity to Taiwan.

“To be very practical about it, if there is confrontation over Taiwan between China and United States, there is no way that the Philippines can stay out of it simply because of our physical, geographic location,” Marcos said.

“And to understand how close Taiwan is to the Philippines, the large city of Kaohsiung is a 40-minute flight from the capital of my home province in the Philippines, in Laoag. That’s how close it is,” Marcos Jr. noted.

Marcos pointed out that if there is an all-out war between the two superpowers over Taiwan, the Philippines “will be drawn into it.”

“And I assure you with the greatest hesitation, but again, we will have to defend our territory and our sovereignty,” the president said.

Marcos Jr. also cited the need to “immediately mobilize everything” to extract Filipinos who could be caught in the crosshairs once tensions flare up.

“There are many, many Filipino nationals in Taiwan, and that would be immediately a humanitarian problem, because we will have to get involved, because we will have to go in there, or find a way to go in there and to bring our people home,” he explained.

“And that’s not an easy thing to do, considering that you are in the middle of a combat zone. So, it would not be a small problem by any means,” Marcos Jr. added.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said there are about 200,000 Filipinos in Taiwan.