PH welcomes tribunal jurisdiction over its case against China

The Philippines on Friday welcomed the decision of an international tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands to assume jurisdiction over its case against China, which seeks to invalidate Beijing’s massive claim in the resource-rich South China Sea.

Such ruling by the five-man judges of the Permanent Court of Arbitration on October 29, three months after the Philippine legal team argued its case in The Hague last July, enables the court to finally proceed to formal deliberations on Manila’s complaint that challenges the legality of Beijing’s assertion that its ownership of nearly the entire South China Sea is “indisputable” and “historical.”