DFA: Duterte statement before UN on tribunal victory is "supreme expression of foreign policy"

The Department of Foreign Affairs on Friday said it  will uphold President Rodrigo Duterte's statement asserting the Philippines' arbitral victory against China on the South China Sea disputes before the United Nations in 2020, days after the Philippine leader belittled the ruling.

For the first time since the Philippines won its case against China in 2016, Duterte declared before the UN General Assembly in September last year that the ruling is "beyond compromise and beyond the reach of passing governments to dilute, diminish or abandon.”

Duterte, who has cultivated good relations with Beijing in exchange for Chinese aid and investments, previously shelved the arbitration ruling and has been criticized for his friendly overtures to China despite its aggressive actions and efforts to drive away Filipinos from its own waters in the West Philippine Sea.

"The President's statement at the 75th UN General Assembly on the 2016 South China Sea Arbitral Award stands as the supreme expression of foreign policy on the West Philippine Sea issue," the DFA said in a statement.

Amid conflicting pronouncements by Duterte on the sea disputes with China, the DFA said it will "continue to implement the President's foreign policy statement in accordance with Philippine national interest."

In a public address Wednesday night, Duterte dismissed the ruling as "scrap of paper that is intended for the waste basket" as he blasted two respected former Philippine officials, who criticized his handling of recent Chinese aggression in Philippine waters.

Dozens of Chinese militia vessels have been swarming Philippine areas in the South China Sea since March, prompting several diplomatic protests from Manila, but failed to elicit a strong condemnation from Duterte.

In his remarks, Duterte used expletives against former Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and retired Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio, blaming them for the loss of Scarborough Shoal that fell into Chinese control in 2012 after a maritime standoff with the Philippines.

Del Rosario and Carpio were among the Philippine officials who led the Philippines' arbitral tribunal victory against China in 2016.

The ruling invalidated China's sweeping claims over the resource-rich waters. China did not participate in the legal proceedings and refused to recognize the decision of the arbitral tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

Over the years, China, which insisted on historical claim over nearly the entire South China Sea, has expanded its presence in the area, turning several former reefs into artificial islands with military facilities, runways and surface to air missiles.

China and five other governments - Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan – are embroiled in years-long disputes over the South China Sea, particularly in its southern part, called the Spratlys.

The Philippines renamed parts of the South China Sea that falls within its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf as West Philippine Sea to assert ownership.—LDF, GMA News