AMID the flurry of self-congratulations on our winning the arbitral case against China before the UN Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, the most important question for us now is how to make the ruling enforceable on Beijing. Official statements from our allies and supporters of the Philippine position insist that the ruling is binding upon both parties, but China has made it plain that it never recognized the process from the very beginning, and, therefore, could not accept its results. We, Filipinos, knew this all along: the only thing that would have surprised us was if Beijing had had a change of heart and accepted the ruling in the end. But this did not happen.

What the Court said