Carpio: West Philippine Sea must be a poll issue

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s territorial dispute with China should be a central campaign issue in the 2022 presidential elections, retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said on Monday.

“We must vote for a government that will assert and preserve our sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea,” he added.

Carpio was referring to the 2016 historic ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that recognized the country’s sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea, waters in the South China Sea within the Philippines’ 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone.

—Marlon Ramos