President Benigno Aquino III and other Philippine officials will seek support for Manila's proposal at an annual summit of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and world leaders in Bali, Indonesia, next week, Foreign Undersecretary Erlinda Basilio said.
The Philippine proposal aims to delineate the disputed islands so claimants could demilitarize them and turn them into a "zone of peace, freedom, friendship and cooperation," where joint projects, such as disaster-response drills, can be pursued by claimant countries to try to build trust.
Non-disputed areas can then be harnessed by their owners without fear of any violent opposition.
China, however, opposes the Philippines' proposal. Its ambassador to Manila, Liu Jianchao, said recently that the proposal was "not feasible at this stage."
"We'll keep on harping on it," Basilio said. "We'll continue to do so until they see the importance of it, the validity of such a proposal."
The Philippines says that not the entire South China Sea is disputed, but only the Spratly archipelago, which is sought by China, the Philippines and four other Asian nations, along with two other island groups.
