Fiery Cross before and during the reclamation By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS THE standard press statement of Malacañang and foreign affairs officials prior to the President’s attendance in the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is for the Philippines to push for the adoption of the Code of Conduct in the South China
By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS IT means a lot to the Philippines that Vietnam submitted a Position Paper to the Arbitral Tribunal of the United Nations that is handling the complaint filed by the Philippines against China on the conflict in the South China Sea. Probably so as not to further antagonize China, with whom
By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS The Philippine case against China’s nine-dash line before the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal gained support from Vietnam in a statement it submitted to the court in The Hague on Thursday. The Vietnam Foreign Ministry said the tribunal has jurisdiction to settle disputes concerning the interpretation of the U.N. Convention on
By HARRY L. ROQUE TWO years after the Philippines initiated arbitration proceedings against China under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, China belatedly published in the web site of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs its official Position Paper on the arbitration. The Chinese position was divided into three. First, that
BY ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS THE Position Paper of China on the case filed by the Philippines with the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal showed the wide gap between the two countries as regards their conflicting claims on th South China Sea islands, reefs and rocks. The meeting between President Aquino and Chinese President Xi
By ELLEN TORDESILLAS CHINA insisted Sunday that the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal has no jurisdiction on the complaint filed by the Philippines seeking to declare null and void the nine-dash line on China’s maps. China’s 27-page position paper, posted on the website of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, came eight days before the Dec.
By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS ENRICHED by having dealt with issues at close range and without the restrictions of toeing the government line, former government officials usually are the voice of wisdom on current issues. Such was speech of former Foreign Secretary Roberto R. Romulo (Ramos administration) at the Manila Times Business Forum last Wednesday
By ELLEN TORDESILLAS STATEMENTS coming from Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario betray helplessness over the situation in the South China Sea. The Philippines is losing the battle that he led the country to wage against China. Last Thursday Del Rosario said that the Philippines will ask the United Nations Arbitral Court to hasten the resolution
By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS USING China’s very own ancient maps, Justice Antonio T. Carpio debunked the Asian superpower’s ownership claims of almost the whole of South China Sea based on “historical facts.” In a lecture at De La Salle University “Historical Facts, Historical Lies and Historical Rights in the West Philippine Sea,” Carpio took up
By VERA FILES THE newly signed Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the U.S. will not help the Philippines if China decides to be more aggressive in asserting its claim on the West Philippine Sea, an international law expert said. Lawyer Harry Roque, director of the University of the Philippines Law Center’s Institute for International