EDITORIAL – Sentinels of sovereignty

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague has spoken, and awarded the Philippines sovereign rights over Ayungin or Second Thomas Shoal. The United States, the European Union, the Group of Seven and Australia, among others, have publicly recognized the PCA ruling, which also invalidated China’s so-called nine-dash-line claim over nearly all of the South China Sea.

So it’s time for the Philippines to more forcefully assert those sovereign rights, awarded in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which both the country and China have affirmed. Based on UNCLOS, the PCA defined the Philippines’ maritime entitlements within its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.

The PCA ruling specifically awarded the Philippines sovereign rights over Ayungin, Panganiban or Mischief Reef and Recto or Reed Bank, and ruled that China has no right to shoo away anyone from Panatag or Scarborough Shoal. Beijing has refused to vacate Panganiban, where it first built huts that it claimed were fishermen’s shelters. The reef has since been converted into an artificial island, with the huts transformed into a multistory concrete military installation.

With the arbitral award, the Philippines can claim the right to develop Ayungin, or at least to upgrade the facility that houses a Marine outpost. The rusty, World War II-vintage BRP Sierra Madre looks like a badly injured whale beached on Ayungin. In 1999, the administration of Joseph Estrada deliberately ran aground the vessel on the shoal. His defense secretary at the time, Orlando Mercado, has denied that Estrada made any promise to the Chinese that the ship would be removed. President Marcos has said that even if any such commitment was made, he was rescinding it.

What the current administration can do is support moves in Congress to upgrade the Ayungin outpost to something befitting the military personnel assigned to the shoal, who are sentinels of the nation’s sovereignty. Unlike the artificial island building undertaken by the Chinese, the improvement of the Ayungin outpost should not destroy the marine environment.

Several senators are pushing for the allocation of at least P100 million in 2024 for permanent improvements in Ayungin, such as the provision of a pier and decent lodgings for the personnel stationed there as well as fishermen of all nationalities who might seek shelter during bad weather. The proposed funding will be under civilian agencies such as the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Philippine Coast Guard, which is under the Department of Transportation.

The Chinese coast guard, unlike other such services in most countries, is not a civilian agency but is under its Central Military Commission. The Philippines cannot match the military resources of the world’s second largest economy. But the Philippines can give its Marines stationed in Ayungin the decent facilities that they deserve.