* Duterte wants meeting to discuss S. China Sea ruling
* Philippine president's China policy criticised as failure
* Countries pushing back over incursions by China's vessels
* Manila to challenge nine-dash line with new passport stamp
(Adds details, new passport stamp, request for China response;
paragraphs 7, 20-22)
By Martin Petty and Karen Lema
MANILA, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo
Duterte will meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping soon to discuss
a 2016 arbitration case over the South China Sea, an aide said
on Tuesday, as domestic pressure builds for the firebrand leader
to stand up to Beijing.
Duterte has a consistent approval rating of about 80 percent
but the same surveys show people in the Philippines mistrust
China and want the government to fight its perceived maritime
bullying.
Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said the leaders are
likely to meet at the end of this month for talks that Duterte
has said were his idea.
"'Remember that I said before that there will be a time when
I will invoke that arbitral ruling?'" Panelo told a regular
briefing, quoting Duterte.
"'This is the time. That's why I am going there' - that's
what he said," Panelo added.
China's embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
Duterte's move follows sharp criticism during his first
three years in office for not pressing China to abide by a
historic arbitration win, preferring instead to curry favour
with Beijing.
That ruling in international law invalidated China's claim,
based on its so-called nine-dash line, to historic sovereignty
over most of the busy South China Sea waterway.
In exchange, Duterte received vague pledges of
billion-dollar investment, most of which have yet to
materialise. Opponents say Duterte has been duped.
PUSHBACK
Plans for the visit come as countries such as Vietnam, the
Philippines and its ally the United States push back over the
activities of the Chinese coastguard and a fishing militia that
is thousands-strong in disputed areas of the South China Sea.
Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasted
Beijing for "decades of bad behaviour", in trade and at sea.
While Duterte continues to defend his policy of
non-confrontation with China, his U.S.-leaning security top
brass have spoken out strongly, indicating their patience with
China is wearing thin. Two diplomatic protests have been filed, the first over what
the Philippines said was a recent "swarming" of more than 100
Chinese fishing boats near a tiny Philippine-occupied island.
The other concerned the unannounced passage in July of five
Chinese warships through the Philippines' 12-mile territorial
sea.
Duterte has been accused of gambling with sovereignty for
repeatedly saying he had told Xi the Chinese were fine to fish
in the Philippines' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
In June, a Chinese vessel smashed into a Filipino boat in
the EEZ, stranding its 22 crew.
Panelo said Duterte wanted to discuss joint exploration of
offshore energy reserves, a revival of a plan aborted almost a
decade ago.
Separately, Duterte on Monday decided to end a practice of
immigration officials refusing to stamp Chinese passports
because maps in them feature the contested nine-dash line.
Instead, they will use a stamp that challenges the Chinese
claim.
"The stamp has the map of the entire Philippines EEZ to the
widest extent," Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin said on
Twitter. "So tit for tat".
(Editing by Darren Schuettler and Clarence Fernandez)