President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday said that he would “wait for better times” to raise the issue of oil extraction and the arbitration ruling in disputed waters “when heads are cooler,” even as Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio insisted that the country should sue China before a United Nations tribunal for threatening war against the country and demand that Beijing comply with an international court ruling that invalidated its claims over the South China Sea. Carpio said China’s recent warning was a “gross violation” of the United Nations Charter, Unclos, and the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia to which China and the Philippines are parties. It was President Duterte himself who revealed that Chinese President Xi Jinping threatened to start a war should the Philippines undertake an oil exploration in the Reed Bank, an underwater mountain near the Philippine coast rich in untapped oil and gas deposits.

Bencito, J. P., & Fabunan, S. S. (2017, May 21). PH may sue China for war threat. Manila Standard, pp. A1, A2.