THE protest was rather late and came a week after three Filipinos were executed in China for drug trafficking.
The department of foreign affairs on Thursday confirmed reports that the country had filed a formal protest in the United Nations over China's so-called 'nine-dash line' territorial claim over the entire South China Sea.
China has been using the map with nine dashes in asserting its territorial claim over the entire area, including the Spratly group of islands which is believed to sit on vast mineral resources.
Aside from China, Malaysia, Viet Nam and the Philippines, the Spratlys are being claimed wholly or in part by Brunei and Taiwan.
Assistant foreign secretary J. Eduardo Malaya, also DFA spokesperson, said the Philippine government had 'filed a note (verbale) with the UN expressing its position on the nine-dotted line' issue.
Reports reaching the DFA said the Philippine protest, dated April 5, was posted three days later by the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (UNCLOS). A copy of the protest sent by the Philippines to the UN on April 5 and seen by Agence France-Presse on Thursday said the Chinese notes were in reaction to Viet Nam and Malaysia's own letters to the UN outlining their rival claims. -- PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER/ ANN
