South China Sea: calls grow in Philippines for UN intervention against Beijing over Hague ruling refusal

More of the Southeast Asian nation’s senators have thrown their weight behind a proposal to pursue UN intervention in the long-running dispute
‘China claims to be an ally … but it’s harassing our fisherfolk,’ said one lawmaker who backs the plan to raise the issue at the UN General Assembly

The Philippines

SCMP’s Asia desk

Published: 5:00pm, 27 Jun 2023

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The Philippines’ long-running feud with China over its refusal to recognise a 2016 international arbitral ruling that invalidated most of Beijing’s claims to the disputed South China Sea could soon be raised at the United Nations’ General Assembly, after more Philippine senators gave the proposal their backing.

Introduced last week by lawmaker and outspoken China critic Risa Hontiveros, the Senate resolution calls on the Department of Foreign Affairs to pursue a UN intervention prodding Beijing to accept The Hague tribunal’s verdict, which recognised the Philippines’ sovereign rights in the resource-rich waterway.

Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entirety of the South China Sea – where the Philippines and several other nations have competing claims – and has dismissed the UN-backed panel’s judgment.

A member of the Philippine coastguard holds the national flags of the Philippines and China to mark the arrival of a Chinese naval training ship on a goodwill visit earlier this month. Photo: AP

Senators JV Ejercito and Francis Tolentino rallied behind Hontiveros’s plan, saying the country needs to use all available diplomatic strategies to assert its rights over the West Philippine Sea – the term Manila uses to describe the eastern parts of the South China Sea that are within its exclusive economic zone and territorial waters.

“China claims to be an ally and a friend [of the Philippines] but it’s harassing our fisherfolk,” Ejercito said, referring to frequent instances of Chinese coastguard ships blocking Philippine naval vessels and fishing boats from approaching islands administered by Manila in the South China Sea.

Another lawmaker, Jinggoy Estrada, expressed hope his colleagues would overwhelmingly support the resolution, but warned that it should not be used as a tool to cut ties with any country in safeguarding the Philippines’ maritime rights.

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“As President [Ferdinand Marcos Jnr] said, we have to create more friends, be it China or the US,” Estrada said.

Manila and Washington have conducted joint military drills and signed expanded defence agreements in recent months to counter Beijing’s aggressive posturing in the South China Sea.

Not all senators, however, were receptive towards the idea of escalating long-unresolved territorial disputes to the UN General Assembly.

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Lawyer-turned-politician Francis Escudero said he does not believe the move would result in anything meaningful other than “ruffling feathers”, the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper reported.

“The effect of a [UN General Assembly] resolution lies in how it influences international law, especially customary international law,” Escudero said, adding the arbitral verdict was “more binding” than a resolution would be.

He also suggested that Manila keep pressing Beijing on the issue, with the help of its Western partners.

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While maritime tensions continue to simmer in the region, the US and China are both pumping civilian aid into Batanes, the Philippine’s northernmost province. These islands are the Philippine’s closest point to Taiwan, which Beijing views as a breakaway province to be brought under its control – by force, if necessary.

Governor Marilou Cayco has said Washington would roll out billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service across the provincial capital Basco.

She also said that Chinese officials had last month pledged to invest more than 3 million pesos (US$54,000) in a production facility to bolster the remote province’s food security.