A rose is a rose is a rose – Gertrude Stein

ONE of the early actions of the Aquino Administration was to announce an intention to rename the South China Sea as the “West Philippine Sea,” adopting a House of Representatives resolution to that effect. But as contained in Administrative Order No. 29 issued a year after, “West Philippine Sea” was not to supplant “South China Sea” but only to refer to parts of the sea already under the jurisdiction of the Philippines. As my good friend Ambassador Dodong A. Encomenienda observes in his monograph, “The South China Sea Issues and Related Core Interests of the Philippines,” prudence must have caught up with the Administration, making it realize that thus renaming the sea would serve no constructive purpose but would only convey the misimpression that the Philippines was claiming the whole sea and aggravate tensions.

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