President Duterte and his administration should now rally other countries to support the July 12, 2016 arbitral decision against China’s outrageous claim in the South China Sea, former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario said on Wednesday. 

Del Rosario made this statement in reaction to President Duterte’s speech at the 75th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) virtual high-level meeting, raising the arbitral ruling in an international for the first time since he assumed office more than four years ago.

“The next step is for our President and his administration to put in reality the invocation of the Arbitral Award: our Government should work earnestly to get the support of more countries so that the Arbitral Award will be raised more emphatically next year, for the UNGA 2021,” Del Rosario said in a statement.

While he welcomed the President’s invocation of the arbitral award before the UN, the former DFA chief dismissed the misconception that invoking the said ruling to the international body is “re-litigating” the case. 

“We hope that this puts to rest the misconception that bringing the Arbitral Award to the UNGA is re-litigating the case. All Filipinos should now unite so that that the world will help our country enforce the Arbitral Award against China. Let us not allow this opportunity to be put to waste,” he said.

Retired Philippine Representative to the UN Lauro Baja joined Del Rosario in welcoming Duterte’s mention of the award, calling it a “significant first step.”

“This mention of the South China Sea is a first step. It’s not yet a UN agenda item. And we must be prepared to take further steps to concretize what the President has said. That will take a lot of preparations, negotiations with other delegations and ensure that the issue will become an agenda of the United Nations,” Baja said during an interview with CNN Philippines.

Baja pointed out that the raising of the award was “three years late” and it would have been more effective had it been brought a year after the award was rendered by the UN-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on July 12, 2016.

“But as I said, the fact that he mentioned this issue is a significant first step, only a first step,” he said. 

In his speech at the UNGA, the President said the arbitration court’s ruling has become part of international law that stands for “triumph of reason over rashness, of law over disorder, of amity over ambition.”

“The Award is now part of international law, beyond compromise and beyond the reach of passing governments to dilute, diminish, or abandon. We firmly reject attempts to undermine it,” the President said.