Retired Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio lauded Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for raising the country’s historic 2016 victory against China’s claim over the West Philippine Sea before the UN General Assembly.

“I personally commend the strong stand that President Rodrigo Duterte made before the UN General Assembly that the arbitral award in the South China Sea Arbitration is ‘beyond compromise and beyond the reach of passing governments to dilute, diminish, or abandon,'” said Carpio hours after Duterte’s speech was aired in New York on Wednesday, September 23 (Manila time).

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Raising the Hague ruling before the UN was an option suggested by Carpio and former foreign secretary Albert del Rosario last year as a way for Duterte to rally world opinion behind the decision.

But the suggestion goes further: Carpio and Del Rosario think the Philippines can propose a UN resolution asking China to abide by the Hague ruling.

Carpio, who was part of the Philippine legal team that secured the landmark ruling, said it was “heartening” that Duterte acknowledged the growing support for the Hague arbitral award from many countries.

But efforts to protect the West Philippine Sea from China’s encroachments does not stop at the UN General Assembly.

Carpio hopes Duterte’s remarks will be followed by more actions by the Philippine government.

“I fervently hope that this is the policy that the Duterte administration will implement across all levels – in the protection of our exclusive economic zone in the West Philippines Sea, in the negotiations for the Code of Conduct (COC), and in gathering the support of the international community for the enforcement of the arbitral award,” said the retired justice, an expert on the West Philippine Sea.

Carpio said other ways the Duterte government can continue to bolster the Hague ruling is by including it in the South China Sea Code of Conduct and rejecting Beijing’s demand for Southeast Asian nations to keep Western powers like the United States out of the strategic waterway.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr has already publicly vowed to push for the Hague ruling’s inclusion in the COC, which is being finalized by ASEAN countries and China.

The day before Duterte gave his speech, Locsin also told lawmakers that the Philippines will oppose Beijing’s moves to keep Western powers out of the South China Sea.

The South China Sea is yet another stage where the US-China rivalry is playing out. UN Secretary General António Guterres warned of a “new Cold War” between the two powers.

Duterte, in his UN General Assembly speech, expressed worry over escalating tensions and how they would affect smaller countries.

“When elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled,” said the Philippine leader.

Duterte’s assertion of the Hague ruling before a multilateral body like the UN is a departure from his usual remarks and foreign policy that prefers bilateralism – or direct talks with Beijing.

After Duterte brought up the Hague ruling in meetings with Xi, China stuck to its guns, refusing to acknowledge the arbitral award.

Duterte had also previously stuck to the line that asserting the ruling would only goad China into waging “war” against the Philippines, a line which Carpio and other maritime law experts have slammed as defeatist.

Before the UN, Duterte declared the Philippines’ “rededication to multilateralism” to solve cross-border challenges. – Rappler.com