President Rodrigo Duterte may have chosen to set aside an international tribunal ruling that invalidated China’s claim to nearly all of the South China Sea, but the world’s naval powers are enforcing it, according to acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio. “There is clearly enforcement of a core part of the award by the world’s naval powers, even if there is inexplicable reluctance on the part of the Duterte administration to enforce the award,” Carpio said on Monday at a forum in Manila ahead of the second anniversary of the July 12, 2016, ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. Ruling on a case brought by the Philippines, the court declared China’s claim to nearly 90 percent of the South China Sea invalid under international law and said Beijing violated Manila’s sovereign right to fish and explore for resources in the West Philippine Sea, waters within the Southeast Asian nation’s 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the strategic waterway.

Mangosing, F., & Balagtas, A. (2018, July 11). Carpio: World naval powers enforcing Hague ruling. Philippine Daily Inquirer, pp. A1, A6.