PHL welcomes US affirmation of 2016 ruling rejecting China sea claim

The Philippines on Friday welcomed a US State Department study dismissing China's unlawful claims in the South China Sea.

A study released by the State Department last week also affirmed Manila's 2016 legal victory that invalidated Beijing's massive claim that encroaches on the waters of its smaller neighbors like the Philippines.

"This is consistent with the Philippines-US Joint Vision Statement issued on 16 November 2021, which states that the People's Republic of China's (PRC) expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea are inconsistent with the international law of the sea," the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said in a statement.

The DFA maintained that the July 12, 2016 decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands "is legally binding on the Philippines and the PRC."

In its most recent study, the State Department said that China asserts unlawful maritime claims in most of the South China Sea, including an unlawful historic rights claim.

Washington's recent statement further bolsters international recognition of the ruling, which was ignored by China.

"Since 2014, the PRC has continued to assert claims to a wide swath of the South China Sea as well as to what the PRC has termed 'internal waters' and 'outlying archipelagos,' all of which are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention," the State Department said.

With the release of this latest study, Washington has called on China to conform its maritime claims to international law as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to comply with the decision of the arbitral tribunal, and to cease its unlawful and coercive activities in the South China Sea.

China insists ownership of nearly 90% of the waters even as it overlaps with the territories of its rival claimants like the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan.

The South China Sea—dotted by a cluster of islands, reefs, shoals, and coral outcrops—is sitting atop rich oil and mineral reserves and straddles one of the world’s vital sealanes. 

Competing claims to the waters and its resources have long been feared as Asia’s next potential flashpoint for a major armed conflict.  — VBL, GMA News