Vitug Vlogs: Proud to be Filipino

MANILA, Philippines – Rappler’s editor at large Marites Vitug says the Philippines’ move to bring the maritime dispute with China to a UN court gets international interest.

Here’s her video blog.

At the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, an important forum of defense ministers and military officers from various parts of the world, I felt proud to be a Filipino.
For a moment, I reveled in this feeling as the Philippine legal challenge to China over competing claims to the South China Sea became the subject of discussions.
The Philippines and China are signatories of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
But Beijing refused to participate in the arbitration.
Simply by bringing our case to an international tribunal, the Philippines stirred great interest among countries in the region.
Some of them have maritime disputes with China.
After the keynote speech of Vietnam prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung, one of the questions asked was: did he agree with the Philippines?
He did not give a direct answer.
He just said Asean and China should come up with a code of conduct to guide behavior in the disputed sea.
The evasive response is understandable.
Officials do not want to offend Beijing.
During the Dialogue, the issue was raised a number of times, including with a ranking officer of the People’s Liberation Army of China.
His diplomatic answer was: China believes in a bilateral resolution of the dispute.
By invoking the rule of law, the Philippines has done something right.
And the world has noticed.
This is Marites Vitug for VitugVlogs.

– Rappler.com