Array
The West Philippine Sea is something that keeps him “awake at night, in the day and most of the time,” said President Marcos as he asserted the Philippines’ sovereign and territorial rights to a global audience.
During a one-on-one forum with Marcos on Wednesday, World Economic Forum (WEF) president Børge Brende asked him what was his main concern relating to the South China Sea issue. “Is it these islands or is it your fishing vessels or is it the principles for what defines what is Filipino territory and what is Chinese territory?”
Marcos replied, “All of the above.”
“We have no conflicting claims with China. What we have is China is making claims on our territory and that is … how we approach the problem that we find,” he said.
But the Philippines has established its baselines, he said, adding that these baselines have been affirmed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).
He was referring to the July 12, 2016, ruling by an arbitral tribunal formed under Unclos that invalidated China’s claims to most of the South China Sea, including the West Philippine Sea, waters within the country’s 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone.
The tribunal rejected Beijing’s nine-dash line demarcation of its claims, which China used to justify its reclamation to build artificial islands that had been turned into military outposts.
