Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 12) — Other countries were apprehensive to support the Philippines during the early days of Manila’s campaign for a rules-based challenge to China amid the territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea, a Filipino diplomat said on Wednesday.
“When we began this campaign in 2010, in 2011, we did not have support to tell you the truth. We were like a pariah,” said Ambassador Henry Bensurto Jr. in an interview with CNN Philippines’ The Source.
Bensurto, now the country’s ambassador to Turkey, was the lead counsel of the Department of Foreign Affairs when Manila notified China of its intent to challenge Beijing’s nine-dash line claim on January 22, 2013.
The arbitral award has since been hailed by the international community, with a number of countries calling on China to respect the legally-binding ruling.
I was there in the ASEAN meeting, I think it was in Bali, Indonesia, when we formalized and announced to the world essentially a new paradigm shift in our foreign policy approach,” Bensurto said, recalling the conference in 2011. “When the Secretary (Albert del Rosario) made a statement mentioning the 9-dash line, I think that was it, there was no support.”
Then Foreign Affairs Secretary Del Rosario said at the time that “the new introduction of China of the 9-dash in 2009, becomes the core of the problem,” which “now must be subjected to a rules-based regime of UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea).”
Despite the apprehensions from other countries, Bensurto said Del Rosario stuck to the plan.
\”In our private moment, I did ask him for the last time: ‘Are you certain about this, Sir?’,\” he shared.
\”He said, again he asked the question, ‘Is this the right thing?’ I told him this is the right thing. And he said, ‘If this is the right thing, this is what we will do’.”
In 2016, the arbitral tribunal constituted under UNCLOS largely ruled in favor of the Philippines. It declared that China has no legal basis to claim virtually the entire South China Sea, including the area the Philippines calls West Philippine Sea.
\”I think there was a strong sense as to the importance, the significance, the global implications of the case that we filed against China. It was not an ordinary case,\” said Bensurto. \”I think there was a strong sense from all sectors as to the outcome of this case.\”
He noted that the Philippine delegation brought observers from Southeast Asian nations to the tribunal in The Hague.
\”At a certain point, we were able to bring observers from ASEAN, from Singapore, from Indonesia, from Malaysia, from Vietnam,\” Bensurto said. \”For the judges to see that it is not just a matter relating to the Philippines, but a matter that impacts other ASEAN countries.\”
Aside from China and the Philippines, other claimants to the resource-rich waterway are Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Seven years have passed since the Philippines won its case before the tribunal, but Beijing continues to reject the ruling.
