A friend of mine wrote something about this. She was an International Relations student in USJR, I think. And this is the conclusion on the paper they wrote.
"The case of Spratly islands conflict indeed manifest the arguments of political realism where each country upholds its claim being pushed by primary motivations to hold onto power over the South China Sea. China, with its need for a strategic strong hold in the area, is poised to exhaust every available diplomatic approach to keep its best interests over the Spratly islands. Indeed, this is concrete illustration of the political realism in international relations not only for China and the Philippines but also to all of the claimant countries over the Spratly islands dispute.
Meanwhile keeping strong relationship with the ASEAN offers the Philippines to gain favour from member counties as a push factor in holding to its claims over the Spratly’s. The Spratly islands conflict will remain as long as China and the Philippines and the other four country claimants continue their stance over the disputed islands. Between China and the Philippines, unless one or both countries find windows of common grounds for settling the case, the conflict is likely to continue without any resolve.
The resolution of the Spratly islands conflict may be reached through diplomatic process, but seems far from reality as of the moment. The only positive way to arrive at certain mutually beneficial agreement could be through open dialogue between the two claimant countries. Nonetheless, continued peaceful and bilateral negotiations between China and the Philippines offer possible ways for resolving the conflict. This could ease the tension as China is more resolve to bilateral negotiations than the multinational process involving all the Spratly islands claimants. Another way is for the Philippines and China to subscribe to a diversion process. In other words, the two countries need to consider pursuing their diplomatic ties through mutual cooperation and initiative in connection with the Spratly islands aimed at stabilizing the bilateral relationship of both countries."
You can download their paper as well, if you want to in this link:
https://www.academia.edu/13754740/Th...he_Philippines
The point really, is that the issue can only be solved via bilateral talks and mutual cooperation.