MANILA, Philippines (AP) – In one of the world’s most disputed waters, the puny Philippine navy doesn’t stand a chance against China’s flotilla of combat ships. So when diplomacy went nowhere and Beijing’s ships seized a disputed shoal and surrounded another reef, Filipino officials took a desperate step: They went to court.
That gambit plunged Manila’s ties with China to a historic low but paid off in a monumental way Tuesday when an international arbitration tribunal declared China’s sprawling territorial claims and assertive actions in the South China Sea were invalid under a 1982 U.N. treaty governing the world’s oceans.
The unprecedented victory, likened by some to the Biblical duel between David and Goliath, provides China’s smaller, poorer neighbors a viable way to confront the world’s second-largest defense spender without resorting to arms and lopsided bilateral negotiations.
“The award further affirms our collective belief that right is might and that international law is the great equalizer among states,” former Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, who spearheaded the filing of the arbitration complaint against China in 2013, said, referring to the ruling.
Manila’s legal triumph, however, brought it from one dilemma to the next – compelling China to comply.