OSG forms team to study legal options on West Philippine Sea issues

The Office of the Solicitor General has formed a special team that will study and propose legal and diplomatic options over the disputed West Philippine Sea, Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said Thursday.

Guevarra said the team is composed of solicitors with expertise in public international law, the law of the sea and other maritime laws, and international arbitration.

“I have formed a special team of solicitors… to study and propose legal and diplomatic options for handling WPS issues with China,” Guevarra said in a message to GMA News Online.

He said that raising the matter to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly is also “one of the options.”

However, when asked if the government is leaning towards this option, Guevarra said it would be premature to comment.

In May, retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said it is time for the government to submit a resolution to the UN General Assembly to have China comply with the 2016 arbitration ruling that rejected its claims in the West Philippine Sea.

Carpio said he believes that the Philippines will “win there.”

In 2013, the Philippines challenged China’s legal basis for its vast claim in the South China Sea before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands.

Manila won the case in a landmark award in 2016 after the tribunal invalidated Beijing’s assertions.

China, however, has said that it does not recognize the ruling.

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. earlier said the Philippines will not give up an inch of its territory, including the West Philippine Sea, amid the reported aggression of China in the area.—AOL, GMA Integrated News