PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has not abandoned the Philippines' historic legal victory in a territorial dispute with China, as he told Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc that he will assert the arbitral tribunal's 2016 favorable ruling "in due course."
Duterte made the statement during his bilateral meeting on Friday, April 27, with the Vietnamese Prime Minister on the sidelines of the 32nd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Leaders' Summit in Singapore, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said.
"The President just wanted it very clear that we are not abandoning, we are not ignoring, we are not setting aside the arbitral tribunal decision, which is in our favor, and that he will deal with that arbitral award in due course -- not now, but at the right time," he told reporters in Singapore.
Roque said it was the first time he heard the President make such a firm stance on the long-standing sea row, as well as raise the issue with another head of state.
China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan all have competing claims to the South China Sea, which the Philippines calls West Philippine Sea.
On July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, Netherlands ruled that China has no legal basis to claim sovereign rights over most features of the busy waterway potentially rich of natural resources.
Despite the ruling, Duterte, who prefers to have closer ties with China, has maintained that he would invoke the arbitral court's ruling at the proper time.
China, on the other hand, has refused to recognize the Hague-based tribunal's decision and proceed with its expansion activities in the disputed waters.
Roque said the President was just looking for a perfect timing to insist on the arbitral award that invalidates China's sweeping claims to resource-rich South China Sea.
"He will refer to the arbitral award in due course because he wants the totality of the West Philippine Sea controversy settled under the rule of law and pursuant to the binding norms of the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea," Duterte's
spokesman said.
But Roque stressed that the President had made it clear to the Vietnamese leader that the decision was only "a victory for the Philippines because it is binding only on the parties to the arbitration."
Roque said Phuc praised Duterte's position on the South China Sea disputes.
He expressed hope that with the President's latest remark, critics like Supreme Court acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio "will now keep quiet." (South China Sea)