PRRD’s UN speech ‘supreme expression’ of PH policy on WPS

MANILA – The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Friday it would implement President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s policy statement before the United Nations, reaffirming Manila’s commitment to the 2016 arbitral award in the South China Sea.

“The President’s statement at the 75th UN General Assembly on the 2016 South China Sea Arbitral Award stands as the supreme expression of foreign policy on the West Philippine Sea issue,” it said in a statement.

“The department will continue to implement the President’s foreign policy statement in accordance with Philippine national interest.”

The DFA was referring to the Chief Executive’s remarks before the UN back in 2020 where he asserted that the landmark ruling “is now part of international law, beyond compromise and beyond the reach of passing governments to dilute, diminish or abandon.”

In his speech, Duterte further noted that the Philippines “firmly rejects” attempts to undermine it.

The July 2016 Award in the South China Sea Arbitration ruled that China’s claims to historic rights, or other sovereign rights or jurisdiction that exceed the geographic and substantive limits of maritime entitlements under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) are without lawful effect.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration said, “there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within the sea areas falling within the ‘nine-dash line’.”

The nine-dash line covers almost 80 percent of the strategic waterway and overlaps with the Philippines and several nations’ exclusive economic zones.