Chief Justice Antonio Carpio has long been critical of the Philippines’ stance on its claim to islands in the South China Sea (SCS). After President Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) last Monday, however, the chief justice came forward to welcome the President’s pronouncement that the Philippines will not waver in defending its interests in the SCS, particularly in that part close to our shores that we have renamed the West Philippine Sea (WPS). It was former President Benigno S. Aquino III who issued Administrative Order No. 29 on September 5, 2012, renaming the waters west of Zambales and Palawan within the baselines of the Philippine archipelago under the Baselines Law, RA 9522, and within the 370-kilometer Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

We are not giving up our rights in WPS. (2018, July 28). Manila Bulletin, p. 8.