KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. on Friday expressed doubts that a Senate resolution that aims to draw international attention on China's aggression in the West Philippines Sea would reach the United Nations (UN).

Marcos, Jr. said the UN "entertains governments; not parts of government, not the judiciary or the executive."

Senator Risa Hontiveros recently filed a Senate resolution seeking to urge the Department of Foreign Affairs to elevate to the UN China's actions in the disputed waters, believing it could complement the country's arbitral win at the Hague.

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"The senator is free to file whatever resolution she wants, but I do not know how that would translate to any action that would reach the United Nations General Assembly," Marcos told reporters in Malaysia.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri earlier said he was confident that Hontiveros' resolution would pass the Senate but admitted that its wording could possibly change.

National Security Adviser Eduardo Año, for his part, said there were other ways to address China's incursions in the West Philippine Sea without elevating it before the UN.

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This includes talks on joint patrols and multilateral patrols, he said.

Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, including the Spratly Islands, ignoring an international ruling that the assertion has no legal basis.

The Philippines earlier this year accused China of causing a near-crash with a coast guard ship and pointing a military-grade laser at another vessel.

— With a report from Agence France-Presse

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