Don’t fear to collect P231.7 B for China reef destruction

Filipinos can seek redress from the UN for China’s reef devastation and poaching in the West Philippine Sea. Seizing China state assets is rightful if it refuses to pay P231.7-billion damages so far. Filipinos must not fear. Weaker countries have stood up to nuclear powers and exacted justice.

Scientists and international law and relations experts raised those points last week in a webinar on the WPS. Tabled were how and why the government can stop Chinese aggression in Philippine waters.

One venue for redress is the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS). “Seek damages against China for barring Filipinos from fishing in our Scarborough Shoal and our Reed Bank,” retired Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio said. “Also for destroying our marine environment after we filed a case.”

“We should not be afraid to do this,” Carpio said. “If we are afraid, then we will never be able to defend the WPS.”

The Philippines can secure an ITLOS award of damages. “We can enforce that anywhere in the world for China assets – in the US, Canada or the Philippines. It’s part of our legal strategy ... that China cannot just grab our resources in the WPS.”

Carpio cited The Netherlands’ ITLOS victory against Russia in the 2013 Arctic Sea case. The Dutch government sued for damages in behalf of 28 environmentalists and a journalist jailed by Russia for protesting offshore oil drilling. Arbiters granted $6 million indemnity including for the damaged ship Arctic Sunrise; Russia haggled then paid $2.7 million. The case affirmed the right to recompense for aggression at sea. “Russia, a nuclear-armed state, paid The Netherlands damages set by a tribunal under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,” said Carpio.

Pooh-poohed was the defeatism that China would turn strident if the Philippines pushes back. Events show the contrary, said geopolitics Prof. Richard Heydarian: “The Aquino admin took China to international court and embarrassed Beijing. Yet there was no GemVer situation then. They did not sink our fishermen when we filed arbitration award. That’s complete nonsense; it has no basis in reality.”

He referred to the midnight ramming of an anchored Filipino wooden fishing boat by a Chinese steel-hulled militia launch poaching in Reed Bank. It then shut its lights and sped off, abandoning 22 Filipinos thrown overboard. A Vietnamese craft rescued them. Although the Navy denounced the aggression, the government treated it as an ordinary accident. As of the first anniversary last June 9, the GemVer crew and owners have yet to be recompensed.

Heydarian also cited the boldness of Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad against China. From personal interview he recounted that Mahathir, on re-ascending as prime minister, scrapped his predecessor’s crooked Chinese projects and loans. China renegotiated the terms and amounts, and Mahathir wangled a $6 billion discount. China did not retaliate against Malaysia, Heydarian noted.

“Malaysia, a relatively small country of 30 million, stood up to China, even though it’s more economically dependent on China,’ he said. “Our government must adopt a calibrated, assertive policy. The last thing we want is fatalism and self-defeating statements from our heads of state. Especially now that we’re vulnerable economically (due to COVID-19 pandemic).”

“China respects strength and is contemptuous of weakness,” Miriam College president Laura del Rosario quoted ex-Australian PM and China expert Kevin Rudd. “Does China view us as weak?” said the former foreign undersecretary for international economic relations.

Marine scientists conservatively have placed at P33.1 billion a year the ruin since 2013. China continues to landfill seven reefs, and steal fish and endangered species in Scarborough. Damage valuation is $353,429 (P18 million) per hectare of coral reefs per year. That baseline came from 2012 studies on global ecosystems, published by Dutch firm Elsevier, a world leader in science, medical and technical information.

Assessment was by satellite imaging, said international maritime lawyer Dr. Jay Batongbacal. About 1,300 hectares were seen ruined in the seven reefs and 550 in Scarborough, said the head of the University of the Philippines-Institute of Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea.

Government must press payment of P231.7 billion in seven years by far, said former foreign secretary Albert del Rosario. If China refuses, “Philippine authorities have the right to seize assets and property owned by Chinese state in the Philippines to satisfy China’s debt to the people.” He included China’s interest in the national electricity grid and the country’s third telco China Telecom.

More than half the 110 million Filipinos live in coastal communities, depending on marine resources for their daily needs, del Rosario said. “We must take the case to the UN General Assembly... Asset seizure not only is possible but viable.”

Sen. Risa Hontiveros said in April the Philippines could use the indemnity for pandemic relief and recovery.

The WPS comprises 40 percent of Philippine waters, said Dr. Deo Florence Onda of the UP-Marine Science Institute. The marine ecosystem is connected to the land resources as one archipelago. The ecosystem is invaluable when seen in the context of sustaining lives, he said.

*      *      *

After the cyber-libel conviction of Rappler reporter Rey Santos and CEO Maria Ressa what next? Watch the foes of investigative journalism gloat, and one of them get promoted.

*      *      *

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.” (Proverbs 31:8)

*      *      *

Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8 to 10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

My book “Exposés: Investigative Reporting for Clean Government” is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Expos%C3%A9s-Investigative-Reporting-Clean-Government-ebook/dp/B00EPX01BG

*      *      *

 Gotcha archives: www.philstar.com/columns/134276/gotcha