WASHINGTON – “What is ours is ours.”
Thus, said Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. on the Philippines’ claim of the South China Sea that was ruled overwhelmingly in its favor by the Permanent Court of Arbitration on July 12, 2016 – determining that major elements of China’s claim – including its nine-dash line, recent land reclamation activities, and other activities in Philippine waters – were unlawful.
“It can be taken from us by stealth or force; yet that would not diminish a whit of our sovereign ownership. What is stolen cannot be lost by prescription, we insist. Brute facts do not ripen into law,” Locsin said in his omnibus intervention during a working lunch hosted by United States (US) Vice President Kamala Harris on the 2nd day of the US-ASEAN Special Summit at the State Department here on May 13.
Read More–>PH victory over SCS pure law: Locsin