The standoff between China and the Philippines over Huangyan Island continues, with Manila recently declaring that Panatag Shoal is its preferred name for the island, while encouraging its fishermen to fish there.

Since the standoff started in April, the Philippines has adopted a series of steps to advance its territorial claim over Huangyan Island. However, from a historical perspective, we can see a contradiction in the Philippines' claims over the island.

The Philippines never laid claim to Huangyan Island until 1997, according to various media reports. Its officials repeatedly stated that the island was outside Philippine territory. All official maps published by the Philippines until the 1990s excluded both the Nansha Islands and Huangyan Island from its territorial boundaries.

According to the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, China holds three international treaties in support of its claim over the territories, namely, the 1898 Treaty of Paris between the US and Spain, the 1900 Treaty of Washington between Spain and the US, and the 1930 Treaty between Great Britain and the US, all limiting Philippine territorial limits to the 118th degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich.

The 1935 Philippine Constitution, the 1947 treaty between the US and the Philippines, and its own Republic Act No. 3046, passed by its Congress and approved in 1961, all admitted that the three treaties mentioned above had legitimacy and the Philippines has never raised a dissenting view of the Chinese government's exercise of sovereignty and right of development. In 1990, the Philippine Ambassador to Germany made it clear that Huangyan Island was not part of Philippine territory. Even a recent article published in Manila Standard Today admitted that Huangyan Island belongs to China.

However, the Philippines then stepped on its own words and disregarded international treaties and principles. In 2009, Former Philippine president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed a bill which claimed Huangyan Island and the Nansha Islands as the country's territory, despite strong objections from China.

The steps taken by the Philippines have created a serious situation in the South China Sea. In the solemn claim for territory, they wag their tongues too freely and behave like fence-sitters in the pursuit of their interests. Their intention to solve the current standoff will not be reached by creating a disturbance. What they did will not help solve the dispute, but only intensify it.