Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on Tuesday countered Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano’s playing down China’s intrusion on Philippine waters in the heavily disputed South China Sea. Saying he was “fact-checking” Cayetano, Carpio pointed out that China claims nearly the entire West Philippine Sea, waters within the country’s 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the strategic waterway. Among the Philippines’ neighbors, only China is claiming the waters that are for the exclusive use of Filipinos, Carpio said. In a radio interview on Monday, Cayetano belittled the calls of Carpio and former Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario for the Philippines to stand up to China by saying Malaysia and Vietnam occupy more geologic features than China in the South China Sea.

Pazzibugan, D. Z. (2019, August 21). Carpio 'fact-checks' Cayetano on sino sea claims. Philippine Daily Inquirer, p. A6.