A Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) official is confident that the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (Itlos) will invalidate China’s claim on virtually the entire West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).
Assistant Secretary Raul Hernandez said yesterday a ruling by the tribunal on China’s so-called nine-dash claim is due at the end of this year or early 2015.
Hernandez was sharing his thoughts on the new ordinance passed by Chinese province Hainan that the DFA says compels foreign vessels to seek a permit from Chinese regional authorities to fish in large areas of the West Philippine Sea.
The law covers more than half of the 3.5mn-square-kilometre sea being claimed by China, the Philippines and several other countries.
The Philippines has questioned the nine-dash line before the Itlos “and we are expecting them to come out with a decision invalidating this nine-dash line by end of 2014 or early 2015 because this has no basis in international law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos),” Hernandez told Radyo ng Bayan.
“It is a long process, but we are confident that our case is strong because our claims our based on Unclos,” he said.
Unclos provides that countries can set up 200 nautical-mile exclusive economic zones.
The Air Defence Identification Zone declared last year by Beijing and the law restricting fishing are similar because both require other parties to seek permission from China when entering areas of which China has no jurisdiction, based on the Unclos, Hernandez said.

Read more: http://www.gulf-times.com/asean-philippines/188/details/377464/-un-court-%E2%80%98will-reject-china-claim-in-sea-row%E2%80%99