07 July 2016 – The Philippines’ invoked the United Nations’ commitment to the rule of law in support of an imminent decision by an arbitral tribunal in The Hague constituted to hear the Philippines’ case on the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea disputes.

Ambassador Lourdes O. Yparraguirre, the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) that States Parties to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea were apprised of developments in the arbitration proceedings since the last annual meeting in June 2015.

“We believe in the fairness and thoroughness of the arbitral proceedings, the binding character of the outcome, and the need for all States Parties to the Convention and all members of the international community to respect this outcome.” Ambassador Yparraguirre emphasized in her statement, pointing out that, “This [arbitral] award will be the rule of law on this dispute. The rule of law is a just and peaceful means of resolving disputes. The Philippines will fully respect the tribunal’s award as an affirmation of the Convention.”

The ambassador informed the meeting that the arbitral tribunal entered deliberations for a final decision after its hearings on the merits and the remaining issues on admissibility held at The Hague, Netherlands from November 24 to 30, 2015.

It will be recalled that on October 29, 2015, the tribunal found that it had jurisdiction to hear the Philippines’ case against China’s so-called nine-dash line claiming virtually all of the South China Sea, and that China as a State Party to UNCLOS would be bound by its decision even if it chose not to participate in the proceedings.

In its own statement, China, through its Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Wu Haitao, remarked that the annual meeting of States Parties to UNCLOS is not a forum to raise the concerns of the Philippines and Viet Nam, another claimant country. China also accused the Philippines of “deception” and engaging in publicity stunts to draw international sympathy, as well as of “illegally” occupying “some islands and reefs of China’s Nansha islands”.

China also maintained that the arbitral tribunal had no jurisdiction, and that Beijing would not recognize nor implement its decision.

Ambassador Yparraguirre emphasized in the meeting the tribunal’s finding, contrary to China’s claim, that the Philippines’ decision to commence arbitration unilaterally “was not an abuse of the Convention’s dispute settlement procedures” nor of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.  

Since 2013 when the Philippines instituted the arbitral proceedings, China in violation of UNCLOS had accelerated the artificial island building of over 2,000 acres in several maritime features in the Spratlys within the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of the Philippines.

“To do this, [China] dredged out and pulverized entire systems of coral reefs that took many centuries to grow, reducing them into landfill, and thus devastated the already fragile marine ecosystem and biodiversity of the region by irreparably destroying the habitat of depleted, threatened or endangered species and other forms of marine life,” Ambassador Yparraguirre emphasized.

The Ambassador also called on the international community to strengthen, rather weaken, UNCLOS by supporting the enforcement of the forthcoming arbitral award. According to her, the enforcement of the award “will depend on our collective will to enforce it as States Parties and through the United Nations, because we believe in the rule of law to follow obligations which we have assumed.” END