{"id":925923,"date":"2026-08-09T11:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T16:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/09\/military-backs-dojs-proposed-maritime-law-unit\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T11:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T16:12:11","slug":"military-backs-dojs-proposed-maritime-law-unit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/09\/military-backs-dojs-proposed-maritime-law-unit\/","title":{"rendered":"Military backs DOJ\u2019s proposed maritime law unit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Michael Punongbayan<\/a> – The Philippine Star<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

July 17, 2026 | 12:00am<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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This photo shows a picture of the building of the Department of Justice in Ermita, Manila.<\/p>\n

The STAR \/ Michael Varcas<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

MANILA, Philippines \u2014 The military has expressed its full support for the Department of Justice decision to establish a DOJ maritime law unit, as the Philippines and several other nations celebrate the 10th\u00a0anniversary of the 2016 Arbitral Award covering the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe AFP warmly welcomes and stands in full support of the establishment of a dedicated maritime law unit to serve as a central repository of legal expertise on the 2016 Arbitral Award and international maritime law,\u201d said retired rear admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman for the West Philippine Sea or WPS.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the men and women of the AFP \u2013 together with the PCG, BFAR and other partner agencies \u2013 maintain our physical presence and patrol our waters, the DOJ\u2019s new maritime law unit provides the critical legal armor we need to sustain our gains,\u201d Trinidad said, referring to the Philippine Coast Guard and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.<\/p>\n

By strengthening domestic legal expertise and consolidating legal records, he said \u201cthe government ensures that our actions at sea remain firmly anchored in international law, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea\u201d or UNCLOS.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. met with European Union Ambassador Massimo Santoro at Camp Aguinaldo yesterday to discuss \u201copportunities for bilateral defense relations,\u201d the Department of National Defense said.<\/p>\n

Teodoro and Santoro \u201cemphasized the Philippines and EU\u2019s commitment to the rules-based international order\u201d in light of the 10th anniversary of the Arbitral Award.<\/p>\n

Racist caricature<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Meanwhile, the Philippine Coast Guard hit Beijing yesterday after the state-controlled China Daily released a video portraying Filipinos as monkeys pushed by the United States and Japan to assert claims on the WPS.<\/p>\n

Angered over the material, Rear Admiral Jay Tarriela, PCG spokesman for the WPS, said China has belittled and humiliated Filipinos in the caricature.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is outright racism and an open mockery of international law \u2013 portraying the Philippines as a monkey and dismissing the Arbitral Award as nothing more than a script written by the US and Japan,\u201d said Tarriela. \u201cFellow Filipinos, we are not monkeys and we must not allow ourselves to be treated as monkeys!\u201d<\/p>\n

On the claim that Batanes is part of China, independent monitoring group SeaLight said Jinan University has rewritten its report.<\/p>\n

According to the group, the university took down its report on the scholars\u2019 conclusion at the symposium that China should claim sovereignty over Batanes and increase coast guard presence and military countermeasures on the island.<\/p>\n

However, the texts were still available on at least three Chinese state channels, including Global Times, GDToday, and National Institute for South China Sea Studies.<\/p>\n

Under the rewritten version, SeaLight said Jinan University omitted portions of the report that sounded \u201ca little too state-coordinated.\u201d \u2014 Andrew Ronquillo<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Erasmo Klemp
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Punongbayan – The Philippine Star July 17, 2026 | 12:00am This photo shows a picture of the building of the Department of Justice in Ermita, Manila. The STAR \/ Michael Varcas MANILA, Philippines \u2014 The military has expressed its full support for the Department of Justice decision to establish a DOJ maritime law unit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":925924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4189,29],"tags":[5242,5119],"class_list":["post-925923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-backs","category-military","tag-backs","tag-military"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=925923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/925924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=925923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=925923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=925923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}