{"id":170734,"date":"2018-07-12T21:28:35","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T01:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=170734"},"modified":"2018-07-12T21:28:35","modified_gmt":"2018-07-13T01:28:35","slug":"we-will-continue-to-assert-what-is-ours-in-wps-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/07\/12\/we-will-continue-to-assert-what-is-ours-in-wps-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"We will continue to assert \u2018what is ours\u2019 in WPS: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u201cWe<\/a>
\u201cWe assure the public that on the second year of the anniversary, we will continue to assert what is ours while we move on with our bilateral relations with China,\u201d Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a Palace press briefing. (PCOO photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Two years after the Philippines won an arbitration case against China over the West Philippine Sea (WPS), Malaca\u00f1ang on Thursday said the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte will assert \u201cwhat is ours\u201d while moving on with bilateral ties with Beijing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe assure the public that on the second year of the anniversary, we will continue to assert what is ours while we move on with our bilateral relations with China,\u201d Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a Palace press briefing.<\/p>\n

On July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), based at The Hague in the Netherlands, released a landmark decision that invalidated China\u2019s nine-dash line map, which covers nearly the whole of South China Sea.<\/p>\n

The 501-page PCA ruling also said \u201cthere was no evidence that China had historically exercised exclusive control over the waters or their resources\u201d.<\/p>\n

Roque explained the PCA\u2019s verdict covers only the legal status of reefs, rocks and artificial islands and not the disputed islands in the Scarborough Shoal and Spratly Island groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are decided to move on issues which are non-controversial because we know that the final resolution particularly on the issues of sovereignty on the disputed islands will take many, many, many years to resolve since this was not a subject of the arbitral ruling that we won two years ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

China had rejected the international tribunal\u2019s ruling which it called \u201cnull and void\u201d.<\/p>\n

With China\u2019s action, Duterte had decided to temporarily set aside the PCA ruling to give way to peaceful and friendly dialogues that eventually revived China-Philippines relations.<\/p>\n

Duterte, however, told Chinese President Xi Jinping that he would raise the arbitral decision before his term ends in 2022.<\/p>\n

For now, Roque said concerns about WPS, including China\u2019s alleged militarization of the dispute territory, are being discussed in the Bilateral Consultative Mechanism (BCM).<\/p>\n

\u201cI have said that we are discussing this in the bilateral mechanism that we have with China, which also has the effect of a protest,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

Contrary to alleged inactions by the Duterte administration, Roque said \u201cthe President has publicly protested in some instances\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I know of formal protests filed directly with the embassy upon expressed direction of the President ‘no. So we have said all this; we are not hiding what we have been doing to protect our sovereignty and sovereign rights in the disputed areas of the West Philippine Sea,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

Roque dared former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay to file an impeachment complaint if the latter feels government\u2019s inaction against China\u2019s aggression is betrayal of public trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe should file impeachment if he wants. He\u2019s welcome. It\u2019s a free country, they can file it and we will meet them in court,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Two years after the Philippines won an arbitration case against China over the West Philippine Sea (WPS), Malaca\u00f1ang on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":160910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[13135,51473],"class_list":["post-170734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-president-rodrigo-duterte","tag-west-philippine-sea-wps","mauthors-jelly-musico","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}