Former Supreme Court senior associate justice Antonio Carpio yesterday urged the Philippine government to challenge China to submit to arbitration (namely, the United Nations’ International Court of Justice (ICJ)) its territorial dispute over Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal to finally settle which country has sovereignty.

China earlier accused the Philippines of illegally entering its waters near Panatag Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc, which is within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Carpio explained that the Philippines’ 2016 arbitral award invalidating China’s nine-dash line virtually claiming the entire South China Sea “was only talking of the maritime dispute,” but the decision can also apply to territorial claims.

Meanwhile, Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra gave his perspective on the matter, explaining that a territorial dispute differs from the since-won maritime rights dispute within the Philippines' EEZ, way back in 2016. He, along with Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla, also mulls adding environmental and territorial cases as legal options regarding the West Philippine Sea, with the former having a tentative date of early 2024.