Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said Wednesday that resolution of dispute in the South China Sea is between China and his country only, a welcoming change in Manila's policy.
Now is the time for Manila to translate its words into action and start to fix its traumatized relations with China.
The top Philippine diplomat has also hinted the possibility of not mentioning the recent arbitration ruling in talks with China.
His words came not much of a surprise. They have echoed what his counterparts in the rest of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have pledged in a statement issued in the Laotian capital of Vientiane earlier this week.
In the statement excluding the arbitration outcome, China and the ASEAN members have pledged to resolve their territorial disputes by parties directly concerned, a policy China has always upheld.
The foreign ministers' meetings in Laos have also proved that any attempt to abuse international law and disturb regional unity, peace and stability would end up as a fool's errand.
In fact, the new Philippine government has expressed a number of times its intention to restart negotiations with China concerning the two sides' dispute in the South China Sea as it fully understands the gravity and necessity of having a functional relationship with the world's second-largest economy and the world's most populous market.
To honor its promise of having direct engagement with China, newly inaugurated Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and his administration need to distance themselves with the practice of their predecessor's plot of internationalizing the two nations' maritime disputes.
For that end, Manila has to work to reject the meddling hands of Washington and its allies in the region, and refuse to be their cat's paw any longer.
As for Beijing, it would always open its doors for talks as long as China's sovereign rights and territorial integrity are respected.
If the Philippines recognizes such a precondition and puts away the arbitration ruling once and for all, then it is widely believed that it would be just a matter of time for the two sides to bridge their differences and rejuvenate their paralyzed relations.
