Former solicitor general and associate justice Francis Jardeleza has urged the Philippine government to seek damages from China for its harassments and illegal actions in the Philippine waters by filing a case that can be backed by Manila's previous arbitral ruling victory.

At the Kapihan sa Manila Hotel moderated by former senator Joey Lina and communications secretary Sonny Coloma on Tuesday, Jardeleza said the government, through the Office of the Solicitor General (SolGen), must do it now while cases of harassment against Philippine personnel in the West Philippine Sea were still fresh.

"Ngayon palang gawin na (It must be done now)," he said as doing so would warn China that the Philippines is on guard against every illegal action it is making.

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. is the one that must greenlight the SolGen to do so, as he is country's chief architect of foreign policy, Jardeleza, who served as a solicitor general during the administration of former president Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, said.

Exemplary damages must be sought by Manila for every illegal action that Beijing committed in the West Philippine Sea.

Some of the cases in which damages could be sought were the laser pointing incident, the water cannon attack and the dangerous maneuvers, Jardeleza said.

Exemplary damages might be sought on the physical effect of the laser pointing to the Philippine personnel; as well as on the damage of the cannon attack and dangerous maneuvers to the county's assets or to the resupply boats.

Treble damages—or damages that would amount to thrice the actual damages—might also be considered to "deter" future actions from China, Jardeleza said.

Economic damages are possible as well, but that's a "slippery slope" to take to win the case, he warned.

To encompass such damages, Jardeleza suggested filing another arbitration case against Beijing in light of the recent events that all happened in 2023.

The case should be whether or not China violated its obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (Colregs)—which Beijing respectively ratified and acceded to.

The case should cite the nine-dash line, which is illegal under UNCLOS, that China continues to illegally enforce; as well as the dangerous actions that could be violative of Colregs.

"It should be filed in exactly where we filed the 2013 [arbitral] case [on South China Sea]," Jardeleza said. The Philippines brought an arbitration case before UNCLOS using the Annex VII of the treaty that eventually drew up arbitrators for the proceedings.

The former associate justice believed the case would be strong as the Philippines already proved its sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea, a part of the bigger South China Sea that China claims in its entirety, through the previous tribunal ruling.

Jardeleza was also supportive of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)'s actions in consistently filing diplomatic protests against Beijing, as doing so would record incidents and could increase the amount of damages that Manila could claim.