Palace welcomes UN tribunal decision to hear PHL, China on territorial issue

From the Philippine News Agency (Jul 18): Palace welcomes UN tribunal decision to hear PHL, China on territorial issue

Malacanang welcomes the decision of the United Nations tribunal to go ahead and hear the case of the Philippinesagainst Chinaon territorial issue.

Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda, in a press briefing Thursday, said the Philippine government always maintained that it has legal basis to bring the case before the arbitral tribunal.

"Certainly, this is a step that we welcome and we hope that this will be resolved in an expeditious manner," he said.

Lacierda said part of the issues that are going to be handled by the arbitral tribunal will be issues on jurisdiction.

"Knowing that we filed it in the arbitral tribunal, we have already anticipated that the issue on jurisdiction will be raised. And, therefore, our lawyers -- both the Solicitor General and the other lawyers involved -- are fully cognizant of that particular issue," he said.

The Philippines decided to take the legal action against Chinaafter exhausting all other means to peacefully settle their disputes in the West Philippine Sea, part of the South China Sea which Beijing claims is part of its historical sovereign territory.

The Philippines is seeking to halt Chinese incursions into its exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea and to invalidate China’s nine-dash line claim to the waters, which the Philippines has repeatedly described as an "excessive declaration" of maritime territory.

"We have always stated that the relationship with China is multi-faceted. Our relationship with China should not be on the basis of this particular situation that we are confronted with right now. We have cultural, we have trade, we have several levels of exchange that we certainly can continue with China," the Palace spokesman said.

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