Cagayan de Oro 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez



The Philippine government should commemorate July 12 of every year with "more vigor" as it marks the country's historic arbitration victory against China on the West Philippine Sea (WPS) issue. Thus, said Cagayan de Oro 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, even as he thanked the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) for their supportive comments on the seventh anniversary of the landmark Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruling. “Our government should mark this day with more vigor and more forceful assertion of the ruling and our victory,” Rodriguez said in a statement Wednesday, July 12. Exactly seven years ago, the United Nations (UN)-backed PCA ruled in favor of the Philippines, which had challenged China’s expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea. This included a big part of the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). With the ruling, the PCA invalidated Beijing's nine-dash line claim. China has never acknowledged the ruling. Rodriguez said the Marcos administration should insist on China’s compliance with the July 12, 2016 decision. China, he said, should now abide by the ruling by abandoning areas within the Philippines’ EEZ that it has occupied and by ceasing to harass and bully Philippine vessels, including small boats, and Filipino fishermen. The Mindanao lawmaker has been a consistent critic of what he called "China’s encroachment and aggressive activities" in the WPS. Rodriguez also welcomed and lauded the support extended by the US, the EU and 16 European nations for the 2016 arbitral ruling. “Thanks so much our big ally and treaty and economic partner, the United States of America, and to all our supporters in Europe." He said the expressions of support of the US, several European nations and other countries “shows that China has become a pariah insofar as the 2016 arbitral ruling and its harassment and bullying activities in the South China Sea are concerned".