Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte defended his relationship with China on Monday, insisting that his refusal to challenge its maritime assertiveness was not capitulation, but an avoidance of conflict.

Duterte said it was senseless to confront China, with a far superior military in the water, and that he did not want war.

He made the remarks during a more than 90-minute annual State of the Nation Address to Congress.

Known for his rebukes of Western powers, the leader has been criticized by the West for building a strong relationship with China and gambling with national sovereignty in pursuit of massive investments from Beijing.

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Last month, reports said a Chinese fishing boat rammed into and sank a Philippine fishing boat in the disputed water in the South China Sea. China rejected the allegations saying the crew had sought to rescue the Filipino fishermen but left after being suddenly besieged by seven or eight Filipino fishing boats.

"There was no such thing as (a) 'hit-and-run'," China's embassy in Manila said in a statement on June 14, adding it would handle the issue in a "serious and responsible manner."

The incident has built more pressure on Duterte's government to take a tougher line.

Duterte told Congress that people living around the ocean had been fishing since immemorial.

Even before countries were in existence, people around an ocean or a lake had already been fishing there for generations, and that is why fishing rights are allowed in the so many cases between Finland and Germany, decided by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the International Law of the Sea, he added.

"Let me assure you, national honor and territorial integrity are at the foremost of my mind," he went on to say.

"But we have to temper it with the times and realities we face today," he added.

Illegal drugs, death penalty and corruption…

Signaling the second half of his term, Duterte mentioned a bunch of other issues during the speech, ranging from illegal drugs, death penalty to corruption. 

He urged lawmakers to bring back the death penalty as part of his crackdown on narcotics. 

"I respectfully request congress to reinstate the death penalty for heinous crimes related to drugs as well as plunder," he said referring also to the nation's deep rooted corruption problem.

"My countrymen, it is a sad commentary that we cannot distinguish our need from our greed, our principles from prejudices," he said.

He also made few references to his signature war on drugs and related allegations of deaths and killings by police.

He was defiant about the recently launched review by the UN Human Rights Council and preliminary inquiry from International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors.

"Duterte – extrajudicial killing – report to the ICC," he said. "If you can provide me with a good comfortable cell, heated during winter time... unlimited conjugal visits, we can understand each other."

Speaking of government corruption, he said government graft was pervasive and promised a day of reckoning for corrupt officials, ordering local governments to enforce laws to protect the environment and threatening to shut down polluters.

(Cover: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte delivers his fourth State of the Nation Address at the Philippine Congress in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines, on July 22, 2019. /Reuters Photo)

(With inputs from Reuters and AFP)