Fishers group holds protests on West PH Sea arbitral ruling anniversary

Members of Pamalakaya gather in Guimaras Strait to call on China to uphold the 2016 arbitral ruling on the West Philippine Sea amid the ruling’s ninth anniversary on Saturday, July 12, 2025. — Photo from Pamalakaya

MANILA, Philippines — Fisheries group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) held coastal protests on the ninth anniversary of the West Philippine Sea (WPS) arbitral ruling on Saturday.

Members of Pamalakaya gathered in Laguna de Bay and Guimaras Strait on Saturday morning to call on China to “respect the rights of the Filipino fisherfolk in our traditional fishing grounds.”

“China is both guilty of plundering the marine environment through its large-scale reclamation and poaching activities, and violating the fishing rights of Filipino fishers in our exclusive economic zone,” Pamalakaya national chairperson Fernando Hicap said, citing the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in 2016.

READ: 9 years after arbitral ruling, China still defies PH sea claim

Hicap lamented the continuous aggression of China over the WPS, noting that it affects over 600,000 fisherfolk and fish workers from several provinces of the Philippines.

“Nine years after our landmark victory in the PCA, China won’t stop violating our fishing rights in most parts of the [WPS],” Hicap said.

READ: AFP continues to uphold arbitral ruling over West PH Sea claim

“We demand China to comply with the ruling and respect the rights of the Filipino fisherfolk in our traditional fishing grounds,” he pointed out.

On July 12, 2016, the PCA ruled that the Philippines has exclusive sovereign rights over the WPS and invalidated China’s “nine-dash line” claim to the region.

“Having found that certain areas are within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, the Tribunal found that China had violated the Philippines’ sovereign rights in its exclusive economic zone by (a) interfering with Philippine fishing and petroleum exploration, (b) constructing artificial islands and (c) failing to prevent Chinese fishermen from fishing in the zone,” the tribunal said in the 2016 decision.

China has rejected the arbitral ruling. /das