Abstract: The South China Sea issue has remained one of important issues affecting Sino-US relations and China-ASEAN ties. From an interdisciplinary perspective of international politics and communication and media studies and based on Gamson's constructionist approach of "interpretive packages", this paper explores how Philippine media construct Philippines' discourse legitimacy. It finds that the Philippine media have made use of three main discourse frames:"victim", "law-abider" and "collaborator". At the same time, they have also developed five discourse strategies:the adoption of metaphors, the description of binary opposition, the application of logical data as well as the usage of visual images. Those discourses on the South China Sea issue from Philippine media have exerted great pressure on the Chinese side. This paper suggests that China should develop the legal and rational discourse in its international communication on the one hand, and enhance its ability in agenda-setting, communication skills as well as telling a good Chinese story of the South China Sea on the other.

Key words: Philippines, South China Sea, discourse legitimacy, frame analysis