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
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.
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.
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.
“As President [Ferdinand Marcos Jnr] said, we have to create more friends, be it China or the US,” Estrada said.
Not all senators, however, were receptive towards the idea of escalating long-unresolved territorial disputes to the UN General Assembly.
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.
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.