In the last few years of his term, President Duterte can still fulfill his promise to the Filipino people to raise the UN arbitral tribunal award in the Philippines’s case against China on the South China Sea—this time, doing so “not before Chinese President Xi Jinping, but before the world.” Former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario made this suggestion during a webinar on Tuesday on “A New Regional Order: Effective Alignment through Strategic Partnership,” organized by the Stratbase ADR Institute to mark the fourth anniversary of Manila’s victory in the UN body. Del Rosario saidthe first order of business is to take the award off the shelf, and raise it “before the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly [UNGA] this coming September 2020.”

Mercene, R. (2020, July 15). 'Duterte can still fulfill vow to raise SCS arbitral ruling. Business Mirror, pp. A8, A4.