00:00 As lawmakers push to raise the issue of the West Philippine Sieve to the United Nations General Assembly,
00:06 National Security Advisor Eduardo Año says this is not the only option for the Philippines to rally support from the international community.
00:14 On the sidelines of a post-SANA conference, Año enumerates three possible courses of action.
00:22 First, the participation of the Philippines in international discussions and fora.
00:26 Second, pushing for ASEAN to consider the 2016 Arbitral Award when tackling the South China Sea Code of Conduct.
00:32 Third, pursuing multilateral patrols among like-minded nations.
00:36 Año says bringing the case against China before the UNGA needs a calibrated approach.
00:42 First of all, our Arbitral Award is really... for us, this is enough.
00:49 But of course, we need to discuss well if we will put it to the UN General Assembly
00:57 because we need to ensure the support of every member of the United Nations.
01:04 So, one way before we put it to the UN General Assembly is to discuss with other countries
01:13 to ensure that we will be supported.
01:16 So, this is what we are discussing and not yet finalized.
01:20 Año also refuses to comment on whether a UN resolution is possible by September.
01:25 The National Security Advisor also reiterates that the Marcos Administration has no final position yet on the UNGA proposal.
01:33 Apart from the issue of the West Philippine Sea and the UNGA,
01:36 security officials say that they are also focusing on defense modernization and cyber security.
01:42 Tristan Udalo, CNN Philippines.
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