Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte came under renewed pressure to seek Chinese compliance to an arbitration ruling that invalidated China’s claims to much of the South China Sea two years ago. Former Foreign Affairs secretary Albert del Rosario, who spearheaded the arbitration suit, called China a “grand larcenist” for pressing its territorial claims despite the July 12, 2016 ruling. Del Rosario also called the Philippines a “willing victim” for allowing the defiance. The ruling invalidated China’s historical claims to virtually the entire waterway, but Beijing refused to acknowledge it or join the arbitration proceedings held by a tribunal in The Hague under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Du30 pressed to assert 2016 arbitration victory vs China. (2018, July 14). Panay News, p. 6.