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Two years ago today, the Philippines won a major legal victory over China. An international court ruled on July 12, 2016 that China's comprehensive land claims in the South China Sea were invalid. But now, on what should be a holiday, some use sarcasm to express disappointment with what has happened since the decision.
In Manila and other cities, residents woke up with red banners. in the Philippines, Province of China, "with the Chinese flag and Chinese characters."
Welcome to the Philippines! ?? (PROVINCE OF CHINA? ??) Photo taken along Quezon Avenue in Quezon City (not not part of China) pic.twitter.com/NXVgSAtciH
– Johnson L. Manabat (@JohnsonManabat) July 12, 2018
Banners underline what many see as President Rodrigo Duterte's failure to assert the rights of the nation in disputed waters China's claims, based on its nine-point line, straddle the exclusive economic zone that international law grants to the Philippines and other countries The area extends over 200 nautical miles (370 km, 230 miles).
China expects a joint exploration of oil and natural gas in the region. overlapping areas even though it has no rights it to these resources go only to the coastal nation (pdf, p.37)
Critics accuse Duterte of setting aside the decision, announced a few weeks before taking office on June 30, 2016. They say they have adopted a defeatist attitude to China's aggressive tactics in the waterway, rather than using the verdict to rally international pressure against Beijing. Since the decision, China has continued to fortify and militarize the islands of the sea, including the artificial islands that are built at the top of the reefs, causing environmental damage. One of them, Mischief Reef, is only 217 km from a Philippine coast and now has missiles.
Not everyone was amused by the banners
"Whatever the motives, it's really not funny." Former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay told The Source, a program on CNN Philippines. "Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the banners were peddling a lie, and argued that the government was asserting its sovereign rights over contested waters.
Ironically, Duterte himself may have given the idea of the banners to the jokers.In a speech made on February 19 in Manila, in the presence of l & # 39; Ambassador of China and Sino-Filipino businessmen, he joked that China could make his province the province of the Philippines and the following week he supported China's proposal for an exploration. joint energy resources in the sea, disan That was better than going to war. "It's like a co-ownership," he said. "It's as if we were both to own that."
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