Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana erred when he played down as “empty victory” the Philippines’ historic legal win against China in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio said on Tuesday.

“China has called the arbitral ruling as an ‘empty victory.’ So it’s unusual that our own defense secretary is calling it also an empty victory,” Carpio told the Inquirer.

“It’s not correct to say that it’s an empty victory because the naval powers of the world are enforcing that part of the ruling by sailing in the high seas and the exclusive economic zones in the South China Sea,” he said.

Carpio said Lorenzana’s remarks just showed the “lack of understanding” of the territorial dispute between the Philippines and China over the West Philippine Sea, waters within the country’s 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea.

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