![\"disputed-south-china-sea-ma\"](\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/disputed-south-china-sea-ma1.jpg\")
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The Philippine government will not be bullied.\u00a0 <\/span>This message comes across loud and clear, as officials yesterday announced the decision to pursue the case made with the United Nations challenging Beijing\u2019s claim to most of the South China Sea, including areas deemed part of Philippine territory. This decision was made amidst threats of sanctions from China, should the case be continued.<\/p>\n All signals are go for the memorandum or formal pleading to be filed, as scheduled, by the Philippines on Sunday (Manila time.)\u00a0 <\/span>This would enable the UN to study Manila\u2019s argument that the Chinese claim covers parts of Filipino territory.<\/p>\n Abigail Valte, deputy spokesperson to President Aquino, said the government would pursue the case despite official Chinese warnings of a \u201cfallout in bilateral relations;\u201d as threatened by China\u2019s foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei on Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>\u201cChina will never accept nor participate in the international arbitration unilaterally initiated and pushed by the Philippines, and China\u2019s position has a solid basis in international law,\u201d Hong said at a news conference in Beijing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hope that the Philippine side \u2026 returns to the right track of resolving the dispute through negotiation and consultation as soon as possible, (and) stops going any further down the wrong track so as to avoid further damage to bilateral relations,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Small fish, big sea<\/strong><\/p>\n Valte told reporters that on the side of the Philippine government, \u201call factors have been taken into consideration when the discussions were being held on the matter of the arbitration.\u201d Valte told reporters.<\/p>\n China has laid claim to a majority of the strategically crucial body of water, along with several islets and reefs bordering major sea lanes.\u00a0 <\/span>Aside from their strategic significance, these islets and reefs are reputedly on top of rich oil and gas reserves.<\/p>\n The Philippines \u2013 the small fish in the big, disputed sea \u2013 has been locked in a tense standoff with its much larger neighbor; forcing it seek UN arbitration in January 2013 to settle the dispute.\u00a0 <\/span>China, however, rejected the move for arbitration.<\/p>\n I claim, you claim, we all claim<\/strong><\/p>\n Manila refers to the areas it claims as parts of the West Philippine Sea, whereas China refers to it as the South China Sea.<\/p>\n Philippine authorities assert that Chinese claims to areas of the South China Sea, its seabed include, cover areas which stretch up to 1,611 kilometers from the nearest Chinese coast, and are thus illegal under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea; a treaty signed by both China and the Philippines.<\/p>\n Unanswered allegations<\/strong><\/p>\n The case was originally filed by the Philippines with the UN tribunal in 2013, with China refusing to answer the allegations. In August of the same year, the tribunal instructed the Philippines to submit a memorandum laying out the merits of its case.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>\u201cUpon filing, necessarily the other side will have to receive copies of the memorial, but I will have to refer you to the (Department of Foreign Affairs) on what will happen next or what won\u2019t happen next,\u201d Valte explained.<\/p>\n Valte did say, however, that if the UN body were to issue a decision favorable to Manila, it would be \u201cadditional weight for the Philippine position.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat is a tribunal that is empowered really to pass judgment on these things based on international law, which is upheld by most countries that subscribe to it,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Philippine government will not be bullied.\u00a0 This message comes across loud and clear, as officials yesterday announced the decision …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":5450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,17],"tags":[420,421,1479,458,422],"class_list":["post-5448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news-w","tag-china","tag-disputed","tag-ph","tag-un","tag-waters","mauthors-angie-duarte","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5448","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}