Name: Franchesca Julia C.

Revello

Section: III-LEG

Professor: Mr. Abad

Philippine Sovereignty over Territorial Dispute

One of the important elements of a state is the existence of sovereignty. It grants the state
its internal power to regulate its citizens and its external power to carry out its international
functions. However, President Duterte undermined it by downplaying its victorious feat against
China on the disputed island.

A state as described by Aristotle, is some kind of community that encompasses all other
communities within it, whose aims are for the greater good (Deth and Newton, 2010). Earlier
views and interpretation of the state had only the people, territory, and sovereignty as its
elements, as further elaborated by Deth and Newton (2010), and sovereignty is one of the crucial
aspects of the state due to its power to carry out its functions within and outside its territory, with
respect to other states. It was only then that the concept of government was visualized as the
machinery to implement the rule of law over its people. Philippines, being a democratic country,
stresses the will of its people as the highest order of the state. Therefore, when China asserted
their might on the disputed Spratly’s Island, through the ‘discredited’ nine dash line, Filipinos
were aggravated. The rising tensions between the coast guards of China and the local fishermen
of the Philippines were imminent. Thus, the issue was brought before the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). As defined by the Department of Environment
and Natural Resources (2020), UNCLOS governs all the activities and uses of the world’s seas
and oceans, whose obligations involve safeguarding the marine environment and protecting the
freedom of scientific research on the high seas. Thus, on July 12, 2016, the most awaited award
by the Arbitral Tribunal was one of the remarkable events in Philippine History, not only did the
territorial dispute was settled, but the ruling was in favor of the Philippines. As elaborately
described by Vitug (2018), hundreds have gathered at the Manila Bay in order to celebrate the
victory of the Philippines against the said Superpower, balloons and flowers were tossed in the
air, #CHEXIT in short for China exit have also dominated the twitter. She have also added the
demonstrators outside the Chinese embassy in Manila calling out China to respect the Philippine
waters and the local fishermen. However, the excitement of the people and the laudatory
sentiments of the Asian neighbors do not resonate the atmosphere in the Malaca