MANILA, Philippines — As Chinese President Xi Jinping was conducting his state visit to Manila, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo dismissed the Philippines’ victory over China in a 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling as “useless,” but experts disagree.
Panelo was reacting to a survey by the Social Weather Stations on perceived government inaction in the sea dispute. The survey, conducted in September, found that 84 percent of Filipinos said it was not right for the government to leave China alone with its infrastructure and military presence in the Philippine-claimed parts of the South China Sea.
“Our position is the arbitral ruling says it is ours but, meanwhile, cannot be enforced,” Panelo argued.
There are other policy options, however, which Panelo and the Duterte government chose not to take. Security analyst Chester Cabalza said that the 2016 ruling recognzing Philippines’ jurisdiction over disputed waters in the South China Sea, could be viewed as a bargaining chip in negotiations with China.
“The non-enforceability of the arbitration ruling at the moment may be true, but its chilling effect remains indefinite for deliberate considerations on the security architecture of the region,” Cabalza told Philstar.com in an interview. Cabalza is the vice president of Center for Research and Strategic Studies at Development Academy of the Philippines and a senior lecturer at the University of the Philippines, specializing in regional security issues.