South China Sea dispute now a global concern – Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines welcomes the international community’s growing recognition that developments in the South China Sea and West Philippine Sea have become a global concern.

Philippine officials, especially Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, have been vigorously drawing global attention to the issue, including turning to the international arbitral court to contest China’s massive claim of sovereignty over almost the entire West Philippine Sea.

Addressing the Legal Committee of the UN General Assembly last Oct. 16, Ambassador Lourdes Yparraguirre, Philippine permanent representative to the UN, recalled that the root cause of the disputes is China’s claim of “indisputable sovereignty” over almost 90 percent of the South China Sea, as contained in its so-called nine-dash line.

“The so-called nine-dash line is an excessive and expansive claim, and does not have legitimacy under international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS),” Yparraguirre said.

She highlighted UNCLOS as a distinct achievement of the UN’s multilateral treaty process, and reiterated the Philippines’ total commitment to its peaceful and rules-based approach to the resolution of maritime disputes.

“Territorial or maritime claims should never be asserted through intimidation, coercion or force, including through massive, large-scale ocean filling or reclamation or illegally creating artificial islands in the high seas and in the exclusive economic zone of another coastal state,” she stressed.

“These illegal actions have destroyed corals reefs and their priceless marine ecosystem which took millions of years to form, and violate our mandate to protect the marine environment under Articles 192 and 194 of UNCLOS,” she said, referring to China’s island building activities in the West Philippine Sea.