BY GEROME DALIPE IV
ILOILO City – The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) slammed Chinese Consul General Zhang Zhen for belittling the arbitral award that validated the Philippines’ sovereign rights on the West Philippine Sea.
“We take serious exception to China’s continued misrepresentation of the law and the facts. The Philippines and China are both parties to UNCLOS (UN Convention on the Law of the Sea),” DFA spokesperson Ma. Teresita Daza said.
Daza was reacting to the statement of Zhang in a press conference she held on Feb. 8 before the Chinese New Year in this city.
“We have and will consistently call on China to act responsibly and abide by its obligations under UNCLOS and the final and binding 2016 Arbitral Award on the South China Sea,” Daza said.
Zhang downplayed the tribunal’s arbitral award to the Philippines and that China “has and will never accept it.”
“China’s rights and interests in the territorial claim in the South China Sea are deeply grounded in the historical facts and the international law,” Zhen told reporters.
Zhang also provided Panay News with a 41-page press briefer outlining China’s legal and historical evidence on the key waterway “to get to the root of the issue and set the record straight.”
The briefer states that China adheres to settling the maritime dispute through “negotiation” and “peaceful consultation” with the other countries having territorial disputes with Beijing.
Iloilo City’s Mayor Jerry P. Treñas also hit back at Zhang.
“Unfortunately for her, I do not agree with her statements. The arbitral judgment in favor of the Philippines is supported by evidence while that of China is mere imagination,” said Treñas.
In 2016, the international tribunal upheld the Philippines’ sovereign rights and jurisdiction in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the West Philippine Sea, or known as Scarborough Shoal.
The PCA, a non-United Nations international organization based in The Hague, Netherlands, ruled that China’s claim of historic rights to resources within its so-called nine-dash line had no basis in law.
Various groups have been advocating asserting the Philippines’ sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea following the 2016 Hague ruling.
Among those who actively advocate for enforcing the arbitral award is retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza, who is a native of Iloilo City.
In 2021, Jardeleza wrote a letter urging former President Rodrigo Duterte to certify as urgent Republic Act (RA) 9522, or the Philippine Maritime Features of the West Philippine Sea Act, to enforce the arbitral award that the Philippines won in its West Philippine Sea disputes with China.
The proposed baseline law aims to specifically name and identify the maritime features in the West Philippine Sea claimed or occupied by the country. Jardeleza said the proposed law will amend RA 9522, the current baseline law.
Jardeleza stressed the urgency in passing the bill he labeled “the most inexpensive and yet most effective means of enforcing the arbitral award and strengthening our territorial and maritime rights in the West Philippine Sea.”
Duterte had his office review the proposal by the Office of the Executive Secretary’s legal office on the proposed amendments to RA 9522./PN
