On the national security front, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has provided the legal underpinnings for the Philippines — and ASEAN member countries — to continually assert the importance of allowing freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and adjacent waters. In 2016, the Philippines scored a major victory in the arbitral tribunal in The Hague that debunked the nine-dash line theory invoked by China. In a speech to the UN general assembly in 2020, President Duterte said that the arbitral award in 2016 “is now part of international law, beyond compromise and beyond the reach of passing governments to dilute, diminish, or abandon.” Let the United Nations continue to be a bulwark for the enforcement of the rule of law and a stronghold for the flourishing of freedom that would enable the attainment of humanity’s Sustainable Development Goals.

COVID-19 and WPS issue: Focal points of significance to UN. (2021, October 23). Tempo, p. 4.