Malacañang on Tuesday, July 14, 2020, said it will “agree to disagree” with the Chinese government’s refusal to honor the country’s appeal to respect the arbitration ruling that invalidated China’s claim over the South China Sea. “We have differences pagdating doon as arbitral award. We will agree to disagree. We will proceed with our bilateral relations because the arbitral award is not a subtotal of our relations with China,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said during a public briefing Tuesday. In a statement, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. called for China’s compliance to the 2016 ruling of the UN-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, saying that it “conclusively settled the issue of historic rights and maritime entitlements in the South China Sea.”

PH 'agrees to disagree' with China over South China Sea. (2020, July 15). SunStar Bacolod, p. 3.