We borrow a famous question asked in 1902 by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov in a work of classic Marxist polemics to consider how to make the most out of the gains we won in our South China Sea (SCS) arbitral proceedings against China. Weeks before the fifth anniversary of our triumph against China in the 2016 SCS arbitral proceedings, we remain lost at sea. Even the Supreme Court appears confused about the status of the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) under the Arbitral Award. In Republic v. Palawan (January 2020), it reinstated the straight lines enclosing the KIG as an archipelago under the 1978 Presidential Decree No. 1596, despite the Arbitral Award saying such archipelago contradicts the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).

Loja, M., & Bagares, R. (2021, May 29). PH arbitral win: What is to be done?. Philippine Daily Inquirer, p. A10.