ADDRESSING the United National General Assembly high-level general debate for the first time, President Rodrigo Duterte asserted the July 2016 arbitral ruling favoring the Philippines in the South China Sea territorial row and welcomed the support of other states.
He said the ruling is “now part of international law, beyond compromise and beyond the reach of passing governments to dilute, diminish or abandon.”
“We firmly reject attempts to undermine it,” he said as he addressed the 75th Session of the UN General Assembly on September 22, 2020 (New York date).
Duterte said the ruling, which has gained support from other states, stands for “the triumph of reason over rashness, of law over disorder, of amity over ambition”.
“This – as it should – is the majesty of the law,” Duterte added.
His statement was issued less than a week after the United Kingdom, France and Germany submitted a joint note to the UN, rejecting China’s claims in the South China Sea.
The three nations cited the July 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands, which ruled that China’s claim in the South China Sea, including its land reclamation activities, is unlawful and does not adhere to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).
In the same speech, Duterte called on all stakeholders in the South China Sea - the Korean Peninsula, the Middle East and Africa - to avoid escalating tensions.
“If we cannot be friends as yet, then in God’s name, let us not hate each other too much. I heard it once said, and I say it to myself in complete agreement,” Duterte said.
The President’s statement drew positive reactions from Senator Panfilo Lacson and Muntinlupa Representative Rufino Biazon.
In a Twitter post, Lacson said this “should now erase doubts on where he (Duterte) stands regarding the WPS issue”. WPS stands for West Philippine Sea, the name given by the Philippines to the portion of South China Sea that falls within the country’s territory.
Biazon, for his part, thanked the President, saying his statement “is a way of standing up to China without going to war”.
Meanwhile, Duterte called on all member-states of the UN to fully implement the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the Chemical and the Biological Weapons Conventions.
He noted that the Philippines was among the first to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and that he has asked the Senate to ratify it.
“There is no excuse for deaths that a nuclear war could cause nor the reckless use of chemical and biological weapons that can cause mass destruction,” he said.
“These weapons of death put us all at mortal risk, especially if they fall in the hands of terrorists without a shred of humanity in their souls,” he added. (Marites Villamor-Ilano/SunStar Philippines)