Declare arbitral award anniversary as ‘West Philippine Sea Day’, gov’t urged
Atin Ito calls for declaration of July 12 every year as “West Philippine Sea Day” at the in Boy Scouts Circle in Quezon City on Friday. (PHOTO FROM ATIN ITO)
MANILA, Philippines — As the country marked on Friday the eighth anniversary of the 2016 arbitral ruling regarding the maritime dispute, advocates renewed their call to declare July 12 as “West Philippine Sea Day.”
Atin Ito leaders made the suggestion as it joined initiatives and expressions of support to uphold Manila’s landmark legal victory against Beijing’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea.
Rafaela David, co-convenor of Atin Ito, said more than 200 advocates trooped to Boy Scouts Circle in Quezon City to raise their proposal.
“By declaring July 12 of every year as ‘West Philippine Sea Day,’ we strengthen the collective memory of our fellow Filipinos and remind one another that the stakes are very real,” David, who is also the president of Akbayan, said in a statement.
READ: Philippines wins arbitration case over South China Sea
Article continues after this advertisementDavid echoed the similar proposal of Senator Risa Hontiveros, who filed a Senate resolution aiming to declare July 12 of each year as “National West Philippine Sea Victory Day.”
Article continues after this advertisement“We should celebrate West Philippine Sea Victory Day every year, not just to remember our 2016 win, but also as a way to assert our just and rightful ownership of the West Philippine Sea,” Hontiveros said in another statement.
“Celebrating West Philippine Sea Victory Day is another way to exhibit the Filipino people’s ability to fight and push back with pride and dignity, not with harassment and disrespect,” she added.
Hontiveros likewise said the country’s legal victory at the Permanent Court of Arbitration shows that “a small country like the Philippines can legally, peacefully, and diplomatically stand up to a big, autocratic country like China.”
‘David vs Goliath’
National Security Adviser Eduardo Año, who attended the biggest ever West Philippine Sea conference this year, compared the landmark case to a “David versus Goliath” situation.
“It was an overwhelming victory for Filipinos and we should all be proud,” he said in his speech during a forum to mark the ruling held in Makati joined by military officials, diplomats and key defense thinkers.
READ: ‘What is ours will remain ours’: Navy vows no repeat of Scarborough fiasco
Año said the government placed the arbitral award “at the core of the Philippine foreign and security policy.”
(PHOTO FROM ATIN ITO)
Beijing asserts sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, including most of the West Philippine Sea, even if such a claim has been effectively invalidated by the 2016 arbitral award which it continues to reject.
The landmark ruling stemmed from a case filed by Manila in 2013, or a year after its tense standoff with Beijing over Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, whose lagoon the latter now has an effective control of.
Arbitral award ‘taken to heart’
The June 17, 2024 incident near the BRP Sierra Madre (LS-57) grounded in Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal—one of the flashpoints of tensions in the West Philippine Sea—saw the most violent actions of China Coast Guard personnel so far, leading to what the Philippine military deem as “looting” of its disassembled high-powered guns and even caused the thumb amputation of one of its naval personnel.
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said the resolve of the troops in the naval outpost shows that they really take the arbitral award seriously.
“This award is being taken to heart by every member of the Department of National Defense, and also the troops in the LS-57,” Teodoro said in a video speech posted on Facebook.
Beijing conducts such maneuvers inside the western section of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, where Manila is entitled to the use of natural resources and other economic activities.
“Their activities ensure that the natural resources in the West Philippine Sea will be for Filipinos, that could be used by this generation and the next, to enrich and strengthen our country,” Teodoro said of the troops in BRP Sierra Madre.
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