PHL Urges China to Submit to Int’l Arbitration

Malacañang on Thursday said the Philippines will continue to use the diplomatic mode on its fight to prove ownership over some islands in the West Philippine Sea and advised China to do the same.

Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, in a briefing Thursday, said “the situation clearly calls for arbitration.”

“China has been claiming sovereignty over areas, which they do not certainly have any legal title to. So we will continue to insist on our position, and the way to go about it is to do it through arbitration,” he said.

And since China has been stressing its rights using historical basis, Lacierda said China “can very well submit themselves to arbitration where it is going to be decided by a panel of objective jurors.”

“For one reason or another, China refuses to participate in arbitration. If they feel that they have a very strong case and they could have jumped in immediately and argue their case before the ITLOS (International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea) (they should have done so) but they have not,” he said.

This refusal to bring their case before an international tribunal “shows you the status of their position insofar as their claim on the South China Sea,” he pointed out.

Lacierda said the Philippines ” will not indulge them (China) with returning juvenile rhetoric.”

“We’d rather insist that we discuss this on a high level by resorting—and discussing it in the international forum—the international arbitration arena,” he said.

The Philippines have submitted an arbitration case before a UN Tribunal as China continues its reclamation activities at the West Philippine Sea. (PNA) RMA/JS/RSM