Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque on Monday shrugged off Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV’s statement that he had sold his soul to the devil. Roque asked the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2016 to tell China to respect the right of Filipinos to fish at Panatag Shoal (international name: Scarborough Shoal), a rich fishing ground off Zambales province. China seized Panatag in 2012 and blockaded it, but the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, ruling in 2016 on the Philippine challenge to China’s claim to nearly all of the South China Sea, declared the shoal a common fishing ground for Filipinos, Chinese and Vietnamese.

Avendaño, C. O. (2018, June 19). Roque disputes Trillanes charge of turnaround. Philippine Daily Inquirer, p. A6.