WHILE Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo calls the arbitration suit that the Benigno Aquino 3rd administration brought against China in 2001 'a beacon of light,' it will mostly like be the graveyard candle for our Ayungin Shoal, which we consider to be within our exclusive economic zone but which China claims to be part of its sovereign territory.

Including the Ayungin issue in the arbitration suit — that China illegally prevented Philippine vessels from delivering supplies to the Marine detachment at the BRP Sierra Madre grounded there — was a big blunder.