How should we enforce the July 12, 2016 Arbitral Award (AA) vis-à-vis China’s intractable claim of ownership and sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea (SCS) including our exclusive economic zone (EEZ)? My short answer: Stick to the rule of law. As a professor of public international law for many years in the 1960s, I always taught that poor and weak states like ours can vie with wealthy and powerful countries only by a reliance on the might of being right, on a steadfast invocation of the rule of law. The Charter of the United Nations (UN) obligates its members to “settle their international disputes by peaceful means” (Art. 2, par. 3) “…by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.” (Art. 33, par. 1).

Panganiban, A. V. (2021, June 13). Enforcing the Arbitral Award. Philippine Daily Inquirer, p. A9.