By Shirin Bhandari | 2026-07-10

The Chinese embassy in Manila and the Philippine government traded pointed statements in late June over the legitimacy of the 2016 South China Sea arbitral award, reviving a decade-old legal dispute just weeks before its 10th anniversary on July 12.

The exchange began after the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) reaffirmed on June 22 that the award was final and binding under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The Chinese embassy the next day rejected the ruling as null and void.

That international court threw out China's claim to more than 80% of the South China Sea.

Legal rift

China, which did not participate in the arbitration initiated by the Philippines in 2013, has consistently denounced the July 2016 award.

The embassy dismissed it as "a political manipulation disguised in legal garb."

Beijing reiterated it does not accept any third-party dispute settlement mechanism over territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation. It demands direct negotiations with countries in the region.

Political fallout

The embassy's statement offered "a window into the true intentions of the Chinese Communist Party in dealing with our country," Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said.

Teodoro's remarks came less than two weeks after China's Foreign Ministry sanctioned him and members of his family. It barred his spouse and child from entering mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. Beijing accused the defense chief of repeatedly making remarks that harmed Chinese interests, without identifying specific statements.

The DFA retorted that the tribunal had already determined the case concerned the interpretation and application of UNCLOS rather than territorial sovereignty or maritime boundary delimitation.

The award has become "an unassailable part of the corpus of international law," the department said. The ruling provides legal certainty, and arbitral rulings under UNCLOS benefit all states by clarifying international law and supporting peaceful ocean governance, the DFA added.

The dispute has not undermined broader Sino-Philippine relations, according to the Malacañang Palace. Presidential spokeswoman Claire Castro said the Philippines still considers its relationship with China to be good. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. remains committed to defending the country's maritime rights through diplomacy, she added.

Regional context

The latest exchange comes as the Philippines, this year's chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), continues pushing for a legally binding Code of Conduct for the South China Sea between ASEAN and China.

The Philippines would not accept a "bad" Code of Conduct that disregards international law or the 2016 arbitral award, Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro has said.

ASEAN foreign ministers are set to meet in Manila later in July, where the South China Sea dispute will be one of the main agenda items, following the passage of a self-imposed July deadline the Philippines had pushed for to finalize the Code of Conduct text.