Phl to present arguments in arbitration case vs China

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines’ lead counsel in its arbitration case against China’s claims in the South China Sea is set to present arguments before the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal in Washington next week.

Paul Reichler, a Washington-based lawyer, and Foley Hoag will discuss the progress of the Philippine maritime case against China and other issues that forced the Philippines to seek UN legal intervention.

“Mr. Reichler will discuss his work as lead legal counsel for the Philippines’ arbitration case at the UN Arbitral Tribunal against China’s claims in the South China Sea,” according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the sponsor of the program.

The Philippines has assembled a crack international legal team to fight its unprecedented arbitration case under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Reichler is said to have deep experience of the arcane world of UNCLOS, a landmark document approved in the early 1980s.

The discussion will be held in Washington on Dec. 3.

The security development in the region is closely being watched by Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and Taiwan, locked in their own disputes with China over sea territory.

The open discussion in Washington on the Philippines’s arbitration case against Beijing comes as tension continues to mount not only in South China Sea but also in East China Sea where China has built an air defense identification zone.

China’s establishment of an Air Defense Zone is part of Beijing’s continuing military plan to dominate air and naval activities in the entire South and East China seas.

Beijing has already established its defense zone in South China Sea through Sansha City, based at Woody island located with the Paracel Group of Islands.

Down south, Beijing has already built a forward naval station at Panganiban Reef,  an area located well within the Philippines maritime domain now commonly known as West Philippine Sea in Palawan. Up north, China also has wrestled control of the Panatag Shoal, a rich Filipino ground off the coast of Zambales province since last year.

In line with its slow but continuing plan to occupy the entire Spratly archipelago, Beijing’s navy is now trying to dislodge a contingent of Filipino soldiers stationed at the Philippine Navy’s grounded landing task ship at Ayungin Shoal, near mainland Palawan.

Meanwhile, a top Japanese academic said joint exploration between disputing countries is often proposed as a win-win solution or at least a confidence-building measure but it could also be a legal trap.

Dr. Yoichiro Sato of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS), Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, asserted that actual practices in South and East China Seas reveal that joint exploration and development proposals are not only economically motivated, but also made with intentions to set a legal precedent to advance the country’s claim to the disputed water.

“As such, they too are the manifestations of the conflicts, rather than solutions to the conflicts.”

Seabed resources are often seen as the source of conflicts in disputed waters.

Earlier, China has sought a joint exploration with the Philippines as “a practical approach in resolving the maritime dispute.” But the Philippines has taken a guarded approach to the proposal as a joint exploration on the contested waters could just be a legal and diplomatic trap. — Jaime Laude, Pia Lee-Brago

Sato will speak at a roundtable discussion organized by the Angara Centre for Law and Economics titled “What Is to Be Done? Resolving Maritime Disputes in Southeast Asia” on Thursday at the Marriott Hotel in Resorts World Manila.

Former senator Edgardo Angara will serve as keynote speaker in the forum. Angara led the creation of the UP Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea (UP-IMLOS), a highly specialized academic research institution based in the UP Law Center devoted to maritime affairs.

Other featured speakers include Donald Emmerson of Stanford University, Shen Dingli of Fudan University in China, Ian Storey of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, and professor Harry Roque of the University of the Philippines. — Jaime Laude, Pia Lee-Brago