Phl losing 80% of seas – Carpio

Patrol our exclusive economic zone; seek recompense for China’s environment ruin; file for extended continental shelf. Such moves can fortify Manila’s victory in the UN maritime arbitration, says Supreme Court Senior Justice Antonio T. Carpio. But certain acts weaken the UN ruling, he told the Stratbase-Albert del Rosario Institute, in this last of four parts:

These statements and acts of President Duterte weakened the arbitral case that the Philippines won, and even frustrate the enforcement of the ruling:

(1) “I just want to patrol our territorial waters. We do not go into patrol or join any [foreign] army because I do not want trouble. Territory is limited to the 12-mile limit. That is ours. Hanggang diyan lang tayo.” (Inquirer.net, 13 Sept. 2016, http://globalnation.inquirer.net/144805/duterte-rejects-joint-patrols)

Any refusal to patrol Philippine EEZ in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) violates the command of the Constitution that the “State shall protect the nation’s marine wealth ... in its exclusive economic zone.” If the Philippines announces to the world that it will not patrol the WPS despite the arbitral ruling affirming that these waters form part of Philippine EEZ, then that is a signal to China that there will be no opposition from the Philippines to its expansion in the WPS. China will interpret this as a green light to grab Philippine EEZ in the WPS.

(2) “President Duterte said he would not stop China from building on a disputed shoal near the Philippine west coast because it was too powerful. Mr. Duterte made the statement in reaction to reports that China would set up an environmental monitoring station on Panatag (international name: Scarborough) Shoal off the coast of Zambales province. ‘We cannot stop China from doing those things. Even the Americans could not stop them,’ President Duterte said during a press conference shortly before flying for his state visit to Myanmar.” (Inquirer.net, 20 Mar. 2017, http://globalnation.inquirer.net/153556/duterte-cant-stop-china-panatag)

Just because the Philippines cannot physically stop China from building on Scarborough does not mean that (we) should do nothing. Publicly announcing that the Philippines cannot stop China is a signal that the Philippines will not put up any obstacle to the construction of any Chinese structure on Scarborough. China will interpret this as a green light to construct on Scarborough.

The Philippines should vigorously protest any planned or actual construction because Scarborough, under Philippine law, is part of its territory. The President cannot simply do nothing to the seizure of Philippine territory by a foreign state. As Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the President has the constitutional duty to preserve and defend the territorial integrity. If the country does not have the military capability to defend its territory, the President must at least take legal and diplomatic measures to preserve Philippine sovereignty over the seized territory.

In fact, the Philippines should now prepare to file another arbitration case before an UNCLOS tribunal on the ground that any reclamation of Scarborough will destroy it as a traditional fishing ground of Filipino fishermen as ruled by the arbitral tribunal.

(3) “The 2016 ASEAN Chair’s Statement released by the Lao Prime Minister included wording that some ASEAN leaders had expressed their ‘serious concerns’ over ‘reclamation and militarization (of disputed geologic features) that may complicate the situation’ in the South China Sea. In sharp contrast, President Duterte, as 2017 ASEAN Chair, deleted this wording from the 2017 ASEAN Chair’s Statement.” (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-asean-summit-idUSKBN17W02E and http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2017/05/20/palace-tells-carpio-chinas-reclamation-activities-ongoing-years-already)

President Duterte’s deletion in the Statement of “serious concern on reclamation and militarization” implies that ASEAN leaders are no longer concerned with the reclamation and militarization of disputed geologic features in the SCS. China will again interpret this as a green light to proceed with its reclamation and militarization in the SCS.

What Philippines should do

The Philippines should start seriously protecting its sovereign rights and jurisdiction in the WPS by patrolling its EEZ, including holding joint patrols with the US Navy; by entering into sea boundary agreements with Vietnam and Malaysia; by filing an ECS claim beyond its EEZ off the coast of Luzon; and other measures.

Otherwise, the Philippines will lose by default its EEZ in the WPS to China. The ramifications will be far-reaching. The nine-dashed lines will be the common border between China and the Philippines, running 1,700 kilometers long very close to the territorial sea of the Philippines, just some 64 kilometers off the coast of Balabac Island, the southernmost island in Palawan, 70 kilometers off the coast of Bolinao in Pangasinan, and 44 kilometers off the coast of Y’ami Island, the northernmost island in Batanes.

This is what Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated in Feb. 2016 in Washington DC, that China and the Philippines are very close neighbors separated by just a “narrow body of water” – referring to the sliver of territorial sea and EEZ between the Philippine coastline and the nine-dashed lines. Chinese fighter jets from Scarborough Shoal can reach Manila in less than 20 minutes. Likewise, Chinese fighter jets from Mischief Reef can reach Puerto Princesa in less than 20 minutes.

The Philippines will lose 80 percent of its EEZ in the WPS, a maritime space as large as the total land area of the Philippines. This is the gravest external threat to the Philippines since World War II. The Philippines will lose to China all the oil, gas, fishery, methane hydrates or combustible ice, and other mineral resources within this huge maritime space, including the gas-rich Reed Bank. The Reed Bank is supposed to replace the Malampaya gas field when it runs out of gas in less than 10 years. Malampaya supplies 40 percent of the energy requirement of Luzon.

Without a replacement for Malampaya, Luzon will have 10 to 12 hours of blackouts every day less than 10 years from now. Factories will close and workers will be out of jobs. This will devastate the Philippine economy. Unless there is assurance of a replacement for Malampaya, no serious investor will put up a new factory in Luzon during the Duterte administration.

The stakes are high for present and future generations of Filipinos. All Filipinos should now unite to defend and protect the WPS. (Full text in imoa.ph, website of the Institute for Maritime and Ocean Affairs)

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