(UPDATED) From stating that arbitration was “no longer an option” in dealing with overlapping claims in the West Philippine Sea, president-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. now says he will assert the 2016 arbitral award, describing it as a “very important ruling in our favor.”
Watch this video:
Macos Jr. made the same argument – that arbitration was “no longer an option” for the Philippines – during a one-on-one interview with entertainment host Boy Abunda on the same day as the DZRH event.
In both Jan. 25 interviews, Marcos Jr. emphasized that war, which he mentioned as the “second option,” should be “dismissed outright” because it would be disadvantageous to both countries. This then leaves the Philippines with a bilateral agreement with China as a recourse, he said (see here and here).
2016 arbitral ruling binding on China
Under Article 9, Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the “[a]bsence or failure of a party to defend its case shall not constitute a bar to the [arbitration] proceedings.”
Having ratified UNCLOS in 1996, China was “still a party to the arbitration” and is “bound by any award” issued by the arbitral panel that ruled on the South China Sea dispute, as affirmed by the tribunal’s 2015 Award on Jurisdiction and Admissibility.
(See VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Duterte is wrong; South China Sea arbitral award binds China, too)
Editor’s note: This article was updated on June 6, 2022 to include the video fact check.
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Sources
Bongbong Marcos official Facebook page, LIVE: Interview with President-elect Bongbong Marcos, May 26, 2022
The Boy Abunda Talk Channel, The 2022 Presidential One-On-One Interviews with Boy Abunda featuring Former Senator Bongbong Marcos, Jan. 25, 2022
DZRH News, Bakit Ikaw? The DZRH Presidential Job Interview, Jan. 25, 2022
The Manila Times, Bakit Ikaw: The Presidential Job Interview’ with former Sen. Bongbong Marcos, Jan. 25, 2022
Permanent Court of Arbitration, Award on the South China Sea Arbitration, July 12, 2016
Permanent Court of Arbitration, PRESS RELEASE: The South China Sea Arbitration, July 12, 2016
Permanent Court of Arbitration, Award on Jurisdiction and Admissibility, Oct. 29, 2015
United Nations, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Accessed May 26, 2022
United Nations, Status of the UNCLOS, Accessed on May 26, 2022
(Guided by the code of principles of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, VERA Files tracks the false claims, flip-flops, misleading statements of public officials and figures, and debunks them with factual evidence. Find out more about this initiative and our methodology.)
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