Palace: Duterte giving fishing rights to China assertion of PHL sovereign rights

President Rodrigo Duterte's decision to allow China to fish in the country's exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea was an assertion of sovereign rights over the resources in the area, his spokesperson said Thursday.

Duterte said on Wednesday that Manila retained its right to exploit the resources in the West Philippine Sea — a portion of the South China Sea being claimed by the Philippines — even as he entered into a verbal fishing deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"Tama naman siya doon, kasi if you claim to be the owner and if you feel that you are the owner, it is the owner who gives the right to someone who seek your permission to fish," presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said at a news conference.

Panelo maintained that the fishing agreement was not unconstitutional despite the claim of the President's critics that only Filipinos enjoy exclusive sovereign rights to exploit natural resources within the 200-nautical mile EEZ.

"We said that provision of the Constitution is subordinate to the earlier provision of the Constitution directing him to serve and protect the Filipino people," he said.

"Moreover, as he explained, there are traditional fishing grounds and Scarborough Shoal is one of them. Meaning, fishermen of other countries traditionally fish there and that is why those who have been there prior to the arbitral ruling, as the arbitral ruling says, can fish."

The United Nations-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration in July 2016 handed a sweeping victory for the Philippines on the lawsuit it filed against China over their South China Sea disputes during the presidency of Benigno Aquino III.

The tribunal invalidated China's historical claims to nearly the entire South China Sea and clarified Manila's maritime entitlements.

It also declared that Beijing violated the rights of Filipinos, who were blocked by Chinese Coast Guard from fishing in the Scarborough Shoal, which is well within Manila's EEZ, following a standoff in 2012.

Beijing does not recognize the ruling which Duterte temporarily set aside in pursuit of warmer relations with the Asian powerhouse. —KBK, GMA News