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Metro Manila, Philippines-  Southeast Asian foreign ministers will hold their first in-person meeting with Myanmar’s foreign minister since the military seized power in 2021, marking what Philippine officials described as a significant step in the regional bloc’s renewed engagement with the crisis-hit member state. The Department of Foreign Affairs said Friday, July 10,  that Foreign Affairs Secretary and ASEAN Chair Ma. Theresa Lazaro will lead an informal meeting with Myanmar Foreign Minister U Tin Maung Swe on Sunday, July 12, in Bangkok. Thailand’s Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkow will host the meeting. The gathering follows a decision by Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders during the 48th ASEAN Summit in Cebu in May directing foreign ministers to pursue “constructive and principled engagement” with Myanmar while remaining committed to the bloc’s Five-Point Consensus. ASEAN spokesperson Dax Imperial said the meeting reflects the leaders’ recognition that Myanmar remains part of the regional…

Metro Manila, Philippines – Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro brushed aside claims by some Chinese academics that the northernmost Batanes province belongs to China, saying Manila will respond only to official positions taken by Beijing. Speaking to reporters after the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the 2016 South China Sea arbitral award on Friday, July 10,  Lazaro downplayed the remarks, describing them as views expressed by academics rather than official policy. “These are academics. Sometimes the academics really, well, they are academics,” Lazaro said. “We listen to the government, only listen to the government.” She said the Philippines remains focused on official government positions and the implementation of the arbitral ruling, rather than responding to individual academic statements. Her remarks came a day after the Department of Foreign Affairs rejected what it called “revisionist claims” by Chinese scholars over Batanes. “Flights of fancy should not be dignified with…

Metro Manila, Philippines – The Sandiganbayan fifth division has denied the request of detained Senator Jinggoy Estrada to participate in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte for lack of merit. “Allowing the accused-movant to attend the impeachment trial would virtually make him a free man with all the privileges appurtenant to his position. It would not only elevate his status to that of a special class but also make a mockery of the purposes of preventive suspension,” the anti-graft court said in a resolution dated Thursday, July 9. Estrada has been detained at the New Quezon City Jail since June over a non-bailable plunder charge, linked to supposed pocketing of more than half a billion pesos from flood control projects. The Sandiganbayan second division preventively suspended him for 90 days over a separate graft charge – an order implemented by the Senate on June 22.  The fifth division…

Metro Manila, Philippines –  Solicitor General Darlene Berberabe said the landmark 2016 arbitral victory in the South China Sea is firmly embedded in the country’s laws and institutions, ensuring it will endure beyond any administration. Speaking at the 10th anniversary commemoration of the arbitral award in Pasay City on July 10, Berberabe said the ruling remains effective because successive governments have incorporated it into legislation and institutions rather than treating it as a one-time legal victory. “The promulgation of a judgment is an event, but legal protection ought not to be a singular moment, but consistent practice,” Berberabe said. She said the award “endures to this day not because it was rendered in The Hague, but because the Republic decided in our Constitution, in our laws, in our institutions, and outward in our dealings with the world, to live by it.” The Office of the Solicitor General represented the government…

Metro Manila, Philippines — A decade after an international tribunal invalidated China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea, the Philippines asserted that the 2016 Arbitral Award remains final, legally binding, and beyond negotiation, as officials declared it the cornerstone of the maritime policy and rules-based approach to the West Philippine Sea. Speaking at the commemoration of the ruling’s 10th anniversary in Pasay City on July 10,  Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro said the award represents a lasting victory for international law and the peaceful settlement of disputes. “This award is final. It is legally binding. It is not a mere statement of policy,” Lazaro said. She said the ruling is “not subject to negotiation or compromise” and described it as “an unshakable, permanent anchor of our rules-based international order.” The July 12, 2016 ruling by an arbitral tribunal constituted under the United Nations Convention on the Law of…