Senator Grace Poe on Sunday, October 29 said it is imperative to heed the opinions and views of maritime and international law experts on the proposal to change the West Philippine Sea (WPS) title to “Sea of Asia.”

“We will rely on the experts to address the proposal on the nomenclature change,” Poe said in a statement.

“Any initiative must not diminish our territorial claims in the disputed sea. We must preserve our rights to the Philippines' exclusive economic zone (EEZ),” she said.

The senator is reacting to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) plan to use “Sea of Asia,” instead of the WPS in filing a complaint against China over environmental damages in Panatag Shoal and Spratly Islands next year, 2024.

She said she supports the plan of the DOJ to lodge a complaint against China over the destruction of the country’s marine resources, which she said, “entails equal if not more focus from concerned agencies.”

“In the Senate, we will continue to push for a bigger budget for the navy and the coast guard to better capacitate them in protecting our seas,” the lawmaker added.

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, for his part, earlier deemed it necessary for the government to use the WPS title since it is “a geopolitical designation of our government, an alternative name to the parts of the South China Sea that are within the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in which we have territorial and maritime claims in that region.”

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said that in proposing the use of the term “Sea of Asia,” the Philippines can raise its various complaints against China in the WPS region by pointing out that the body of water is a shared resource for the whole world.