What did former President Benigno Aquino 3rd, his Foreign Affairs secretary Albert del Rosario and his solicitor general Florin Hilbay do when they brought the arbitration suit against China before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2013? They shot themselves in the foot. Correct that, they shot the Philippines in the foot. Two of the major provisions of the arbitration award handed down in 2016 for that case emboldened Malaysia to claim that its continental shelf would include most of our territory called the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG), which the strongman Ferdinand Marcos had created by decree in 1978.

Tiglao, R. (2020, August 12). Exploiting arbitration ruling, Malaysia claims most of our Kalayaan Island Groups. The Manila Times, pp. A1, A5.