Why the West Philippine Sea ruling still matters

MANILA, Philippines — Ten years ago, an arbitral tribunal affirmed the Philippines’ sovereign rights in its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf in the West Philippine Sea and invalidated China’s nine-dash-line claim in the South China Sea.

Since then, legal experts have hailed the July 12, 2016, ruling as a Philippine legal victory that upheld the rule of law in the vital sea lane.

But at the grassroots level, what does the 501-page decision mean for an ordinary Filipino?

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In the words of Solicitor General Darlene Marie Berberabe, “It means the fish that feed our coastal towns are, in law, Filipino fish. It means the gas beneath Recto Bank is, in law, Filipino gas.”

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“And that Bajo de Masinloc, in law, remains a traditional fishing ground from which our fishermen may not lawfully depart,” she added.

As the country commemorates the 10th anniversary of the landmark ruling on July 12, experts said Filipinos must collectively assert the rights secured under it and understand that developments in the West Philippine Sea affect people across the country.

At a conference organized by the Department of Foreign Affairs in Pasay City on Friday, University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute Director Michael Atrigenio said a decline in fish production alone could lead to higher fish prices.

“Even if they live in a place very far from the West Philippine Sea, they are also affected by what happens in the West Philippine Sea,” he said.

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“These things have to be explained — not just the legal aspect of the award, but also the benefits that we get because we won in the arbitration.”

Filipinos’ basic needs

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The Philippines’ journey to The Hague and the eventual 2016 arbitral ruling began after China formally submitted its so-called nine-dash-line claim to the United Nations in 2009.

The demarcation covered nearly all of the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zones of the Philippines and other coastal states in the South China Sea.

In April 2012, Philippine and Chinese vessels became locked in a standoff at Scarborough Shoal, an area 124 nautical miles off mainland Zambales that has long been Philippine territory and where generations of Filipino fishermen have regularly fished.

The standoff lasted four months. By the time it ended, Filipino fishermen had been blocked from entering the shoal’s lagoon.

Berberabe said the pressure at the time was not limited to the sea.

That same year, Philippine banana shipments faced sudden barriers, tour groups were canceled, and filing an arbitration case was not the obvious choice.

“But we needed clarity on rights over the waters surrounding the archipelago, particularly those in the South China Sea. No less than the livelihood of our fishing communities was at stake. The case was borne by the most basic needs of our people,” she said.

Uncertainty lifted

When it issued the award in 2016, the arbitral tribunal ruled that the nine-dash line created no entitlement to resources and that no feature claimed by China under it could generate an exclusive economic zone of its own, Berberabe said.

Had Beijing’s claims been upheld, she said, they would have swallowed most of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

“What the award supplied was certainty: It confirmed that within our exclusive economic zone, the Philippines holds sovereign rights, not sovereignty over the waters, but the exclusive right — ours and no one else’s — to explore, exploit, conserve and manage the resources of the sea, the seabed and its subsoil,” she said.

Before the ruling, Department of Justice Senior State Counsel Fretti Ganchoon said there had been a real question over whether there was a valid overlap in the maritime zones in the West Philippine Sea.

“Because of this award, it’s clear that all of the riches there, the marine wealth there, including oil and gas in the continental shelf — all of these belong to us,” she said.

“And it’s the maritime riches that we need to protect because it’s not just for us, the present generation, but for all future generations. There’s a connection to food security, energy security, etc. It’s not just a term or a concept.”

Berberabe said that beyond protecting Filipino livelihoods and food sources in the years to come, the award also preserved the wider South China Sea as what the law says it is: “a sea governed by rules.”

“That certainty is a security good in the strictest sense. Instability at sea is priced into every insurance premium, every rerouted voyage, every delayed cargo. Law remains the least expensive security architecture ever devised, and the award is a load-bearing law,” she said.

Enduring protection

Ten years on, Berberabe said, the ruling has continued to “quietly keep alive” the country’s national security, as well as stability, freedom of navigation and the flow of commerce in the region.

“Administrations change. Emphases shift. Budgets rise and fall. The republic, however, is a continuing client, and this decade’s work has moved the award’s protection beyond the reach of any single season of politics,” she said.

“The award lives now in the Constitution’s standing command, in two statutes of the land, in standing institutions that meet whether or not the news is watching, in charts our children will study bearing our own names for our own features.”

Over the past decade, the government has woven the award, thread by thread, into domestic laws.

Since 2022, the country has also taken bolder steps to promote the award by documenting and publicizing harassment experienced by Filipinos in the West Philippine Sea.

In 2024, the Marcos administration further centralized its response to challenges in the West Philippine Sea by reorganizing the National Coast Watch Council into the National Maritime Council, of which the solicitor general is a member.

“From that seat, I can tell you what enduring protection looks like on an ordinary day: It is the Coast Guard holding station in our waters with discipline under immense provocation, whether it be the use of water cannons, aggressive maneuvers or confrontations at Ayungin Shoal and Bajo de Masinloc,” she said.

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“It is the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources standing beside our fisherfolk under the gaze of the Chinese maritime militia. It is the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority drawing the charts. It is the Department of Foreign Affairs filing the protests, patiently, one by one. It is the Armed Forces sustaining a presence that gives the law not merely a witness but a team.” /dm

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