{"id":5583,"date":"2014-03-30T20:35:10","date_gmt":"2014-03-30T12:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=5583"},"modified":"2014-03-30T20:35:10","modified_gmt":"2014-03-30T12:35:10","slug":"philippines-files-evidence-in-legal-challenge-against-chinas-claims-in-the-south-china-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/03\/30\/philippines-files-evidence-in-legal-challenge-against-chinas-claims-in-the-south-china-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Philippines files evidence in legal challenge against China\u2019s claims in the South China Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"800px-South_China_Sea\"<\/a><\/p>\n

MANILA,\u00a0Philippines\u2014The\u00a0Philippines\u00a0on Sunday presented evidence to an international tribunal against China\u2019s sweeping territorial claims in the South China Sea, ignoring Beijing\u2019s warning that the case will damage ties.<\/p>\n

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told a news conference that the documents submitted electronically to the tribunal in The Hague consist of nearly 4,000 pages of analysis and documentary evidence.<\/p>\n

Filipino\u00a0officials took their territorial disputes with China to international arbitration in January 2013 after Chinese government ships took control of a disputed shoal off the northwestern\u00a0Philippines.\u00a0They asked the tribunal to declare China\u2019s claims to about 80 per cent of the strategic waters and Beijing\u2019s seizure of eight South China Sea shoals and reefs illegal.<\/p>\n

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a news conference Wednesday that China will never accept nor participate in the international arbitration pushed by the\u00a0Philippines.\u00a0He called on the\u00a0Philippines\u00a0\u201dto stop going any further down the wrong track so as to avoid further damage to bilateral relations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Philippines\u00a0has urged other claimants to join the case, but none have so far publicly stepped forward.<\/p>\n

China, Brunei, Malaysia, the\u00a0Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have overlapping claims across the busy South China Sea.<\/p>\n

China has asked other claimants to settle the disputes through one-on-one negotiations, something that would give it advantage because of its sheer size and clout. It has also warned Washington not to get involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith firm conviction, the ultimate purpose of the memorial is our national interest,\u201d del Rosario said. \u201cIt is about defending what is legitimately ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

The disputes have periodically erupted into dangerous confrontations, sparking tensions and straining ties.<\/p>\n

In the latest incident, a\u00a0Philippine\u00a0government ship slipped past a Chinese coast guard blockade Saturday and brought food and fresh troops to a navy ship marooned on Second Thomas Shoal. The ship is used as a base by\u00a0Filipino\u00a0troops to bolster the country\u2019s territorial claims in the area.<\/p>\n

The mission was accomplished peacefully despite a radioed warning by the Chinese to the Filipinos to stop or \u201ctake full responsibility for the consequences of your action.\u201d<\/p>\n

On March 9, Chinese vessels blocked a resupply mission to the shoal, called Ayungin by the\u00a0Philippines.<\/p>\n

Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza said the\u00a0Philippines\u00a0last month amended its statement of claim to include Ayungin Shoal as subject of arbitration. He said that the shoal is within the\u00a0Philippines\u2019 200 nautical miles Exclusive Economic Zone, and that the country has sovereign rights and jurisdiction over it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA,\u00a0Philippines\u2014The\u00a0Philippines\u00a0on Sunday presented evidence to an international tribunal against China\u2019s sweeping territorial claims in the South China Sea, ignoring Beijing\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":4251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news-ph","mauthors-teresa-cerojano","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5583","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=5583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}