IT has been a colossal hoax pulled off with astonishing success by the pro-American Yellow Cult: that the award handed down by an arbitral panel in the suit brought by former president Benigno Aquino 3rd and his government upheld our rights to the Spratlys and ruled illegal China’s claims.

The deception indeed has been so powerful that even my esteemed colleague in this newspaper, whose columns I’ve admired, Fr. Ranhilio Aquino, totally fell for it.