The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) has created a team to study the government’s legal options to defend the country’s victory at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) against China’s claims.

Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra declared this as the House Appropriations panel deliberated over the Justice department’s proposed 2024 budget.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez asked Guevarra if it would be all right to provide the OSG an additional P10 million to form a special task force to study the government’s next move in relation to its territorial dispute with China over the West Philippine Sea.

“Two weeks ago, I constituted a special team of high-caliber solicitors who have extensive training in international public law and also in arbitration to study the legal options the Philippine government may take in connection with the victory that we had secured in 2016 from the Permanent Court of Arbitration against our big neighbor,” Guevarra replied.

Guevarra said he was aware of the proposals of the Congress to raise the West Philippine Sea issue to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and to have a second round of arbitration in the PCA.

He added that they are still studying these options since they might “have very, very serious and important implications”.

Guevarra said they had conducted an extensive study on the country’s claims over Sabah in relation to the arbitral award that ruled in favor of the heirs of the Sulu and submitted copies to the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the President.

He vowed that the OSG would hold a similar extensive study on the 2016 arbitral award in relation to the West Philippine Sea.

Guevarra welcomed Rodriguez’s motion to provide the agency with P10 million for the special team of solicitors. Jaspearl Tan/DMS