VICTORY NOT UP FOR 'LITIGATION'

Locsin says he'd clam up on arbitral award favoring Manila at UN meet

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.  would avoid talking about the Philippines' July 2016 arbitral victory invalidating China's excessive claims in the disputed South China Sea (SCS) at United Nations General Assembly.

Opening his mouth about the topic will only subject the country’s legitimate win to a debate, he said.

Locsin made the remark in response to the suggestion made by his predecessor former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario to raise the matter before the UN General Assembly in September, considering that President Rodrigo Duterte promised to raise such issue to China at the proper time.

“We won it already. Why litigate something you already won?” Locsin, a lawyer, said.

“You don’t like that you won? That is why I rejected it,” Locsin added, referring to Del Rosario’s suggestion.

Locsin said that the Philippines’ victory before the Permanent Court of Arbitration—marked by the court’s ruling rejecting China’s claim to almost the entire the SCS, declaring the Spratly Islands, Panganiban (Mischief) Reef, Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal and Recto (Reed) Bank as all within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and deeming Beijing's action of preventing Filipino fishermen to access Panatag Shoal illegal—is not up for discussion.

“We don’t need to bring it back to the UN because if we do so, it will be a question of numbers,” Locsin said.

“This has nothing to do with numbers. This has got to do with the law,” Locsin added.

Locsin then said that while China has continually refused to recognize the Philippines’ legal victory and did not even bother to participate in the Hague proceedings, its opposition does not change the fact that it lost to the Philippines.

“Hey, it’s a free world. You want me to be angry at China because they express their opinion? Come on. They can say that but we know we have the law on our side,” Locsin said.

China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations including the Philippines have a standing Declaration of Conduct (Asean-DOC) in the South China Sea signed in 2002.

This Asean-DOC states that parties should “undertake to exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability including, among others, refraining from action of inhabiting on the presently uninhabited islands, reefs, shoals, cays, and other features and to handle their differences in a constructive manner.”

However, the Asean-DOC is a non-binding agreement that has not prevented China from staging reclamation activities in the SCS, including areas within the Philippines' EEZ.

Beijing’s excessive claims in the disputed sea also overlap with the interests of other claimant Asian neighbors, including Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. —LBG, GMA News