DND chief hopeful China will comply with UN ruling

This handout photo taken on March 17, 2015 by satellite imagery provider DigitalGlobe and released to AFP by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSSI) think tank shows a satellite image of vessels purportedly dredging sand at Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands in the disputed South China Sea. The series of satellite images posted on the website of the Center for Strategic and International Studies last week show a flotilla of Chinese vessels dredging sand onto Mischief Reef and the resulting land spreading in size. Beijing on April 9 reaffirmed its right to build on the disputed islands after the satellite imagery emerged of construction operations turning tropical reefs into concrete artificial islands. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan all have overlapping claims in the area. (AFP Photo / CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative / DigitalGlobe)

MANILA – With the Philippines winning its arbitration case, Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin Lorenzana hopes China will comply with the ruling for the good of the entire region.

“I hope China will abide (with the ruling) because it will be good for the whole region if everybody will follow the rule of law, nobody can just cherry pick the laws that we are going to abide by it. We believe in a community of nations (that) exist side-by-side harmoniously,” he added.

However, Lorenzana declined to comment on the ruling’s effect on security of the disputed areas and whether the Philippines will now lift its construction moratorium at Ayungin Shoal, now that the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration has ruled that the feature belongs to the country.

“I can’t answer that now because the government is still processing the decision of the tribunal which is more than 500 pages, the Solicitor General just went through it,” the DND chief stressed.

“Many things need to be studied first, the President said there is no rush in deciding what to do, study this and wait for other developments and consult with (our) allies first on what do,” he further revealed.

At 5:00 p.m. Tuesday (Manila time), the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration handed down its decision on the case which invalidated China’s claim over its “historic rights” to the disputed waters, stressing that its ‘Nine-Dash-Line’ claim has no legal basis.

The ruling also added that China violated the Philippines’ sovereign rights in its exclusive economic zone through meddling with Philippine fishing and oil exploration in the region, allowing the illegal entry of Chinese fishermen into the disputed waters and causing harm to marine environment in the region through its massive reclamation activities.

Such actions, according to the tribunal, has also caused the escalation of tension between the two parties.