Solons press gov’t to file UNGA reso to address China aggression in WPS

China Coast Guard-3104 sustains damage to its forecastle after being rammed by the Chinese navy in Panatag Shoal on Monday. ( 📷: PTV reporter Patrick De Jesus via John Eric Mendoza, INQUIRER.net)

MANILA, Philippines — Mamamayang Liberal (ML) party list Rep. Leila de Lima, along with other lawmakers, lodged on Wednesday a resolution urging the Philippine government to introduce a resolution to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), calling on China to respect the 2016 Arbitral Award.

De Lima said the filing of House Resolution No. 192 came as tensions in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) continue.

De Lima and other members of the WPS bloc called on the executive department through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to introduce such a resolution to the UNGA.

We feel it is appropriate to file this because tensions have been escalating in the West Philippine Sea, and China has been persistent and relentless in its hostile and aggressive acts in the West Philippine Sea,” De Lima said in Filipino after filing the resolution.

“But many countries are with us in this fight because the law, the international law, is with us. So we want to galvanize the support of the global community for the cause of the Philippines because we are the ones who have the right to the West Philippine Sea according to international law,” she added.

In September last year, the DFA revealed its plans to file a resolution before the UNGA, which was announced by Nueva Ecija 2nd District Rep. Joseph Gilbert Violago during the plenary deliberations on the 2025 General Appropriations Bill last year.

Then ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo, now a senator, likewise urged the DFA to sponsor a resolution before the UNGA that would eventually allow the international body to intervene in the WPS dispute.

He filed House Resolution No. 1766 on June 10 of the same year.

China’s continued aggression in the region is based on its assertion of sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, including most of the West Philippine Sea.

It continues to reject the July 2016 Arbitral Award, which effectively dismissed its claims and ruled in favor of Manila.

The landmark ruling stemmed from a case filed by Manila in 2013, a year after its tense standoff with Beijing over Panatag Shoal, whose lagoon the latter now effectively controls. /gsg/abc