Philippine position on South China Sea self-contradictory: vice speaker of Czech parliament

Photo taken on April 5, 2016 shows the lighthouse on Zhubi Reef of Nansha Islands in the South China Sea, south China. (Xinhua file photo)

PRAGUE, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Vojtech Filip, vice speaker of the Parliament of the Czech Republic and leader of the Czech Communist Party, said Philippine position is self-contradictory on the South China Sea case.

"I am convinced that in this respect the proposed arbitration is extremely premature, outside the framework of international law, and in its own way disrupts that which the Philippines have worked for in the past -- a unified approach to all countries that border the South China Sea," Filip told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"I consider the approach of China to be adequate, i.e. that they refuse to participate in the arbitration case," Filip stated.

Manila unilaterally initiated an arbitration case against China over maritime disputes in the South China Sea at the Permanent Court of Arbitration(PCA) in The Hague in early 2013 under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

China has pointed out that territorial issues are not subject to the UNCLOS, and that as early as in 2006 it declared -- in line with UNCLOS -- to exclude disputes concerning maritime delimitation from mandatory dispute-settlement procedures. Some 30 countries have also filed declarations of this kind.

On June 29, the PCA announced it will decide on the South China Sea case on July 12.

The Chinese government has repeatedly reiterated that it would neither accept nor participate in the arbitration.