Better option to deal with sea row is to directly deal with China, says Palace

September 20, 2019

Malacañang insisted on Friday that the "better option" to address the territorial dispute with China is to "directly" deal with it.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made the statement after former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario again urged the Duterte administration to raise the arbitral ruling in favor of the Philippines and against China in the country's upcoming address in the United Nations General Assembly on September 28.

"Presently, there is no better option to resolve the dispute than addressing the same directly with the other claimant," he said.

Panelo, also the chief presidential legal counsel, said the resolution of the territorial conflict is a matter of executive strategy.

"The Administration has chosen bilateral negotiations, an internationally recognized mode of resolving a conflict. Compared to the previous administration, the present one is faring better," he said.

The Aquino administration, where Del Rosario was its foreign affairs secretary, filed the petition before the UN Arbitral Tribunal to invalidate China's vast claim in the South China Sea.

China, even if a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, refused to participate as it also rejected the July 2016 ruling invalidating Beijing's historic and sovereign claim in almost the entire South China Sea.

"While the variant stance of the Philippines and China remains the same, it does not however derail nor diminish the improved amity between both countries. The Presidents of the two countries agreed to continue with peaceful dialogue to break the impasse while forging agreements on other mutual areas of concern beneficial to both," he said.

But despite the talks going on between the Philippines and China, the latter has continued with its aggressive activities in the disputed and even inside Manila's territorial waters.

During the past months, the Philippine government was able to monitor Chinese warships within the Philippine territorial waters without seeking permission or informing the Duterte government.

Panelo repeated that going to the UN General Assembly would be a futile exercise.

"The United Nations, as an inter-governmental organization, has no enforcement force to implement the subject arbitral award," he said.

"Even in the case of Nicaragua cited by Mr. Del Rosario to buttress his proposal, the United Nations’ resolution in support thereof only had the effect of courting global opinion to put pressure on the United States. The proposal of Mr. Del Rosario would, at most, only give international pressure to China relative to our conflicting claims in the West Philippine Sea," Panelo said.

Given the Philippines' ongoing peaceful negotiations with China, he said, "we do not need any type of measure, such as this suggestion. It may only have an adverse effect on our continuing diplomatic and friendly talks on the issue." Celerina Monte/DMS