Beaten to the draw again

Being assailed for not toeing the line on the “rules-based international order” in the South China Sea (SCS) maritime territorial dispute with other claimant countries like the Philippines, China beat us in complying with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Both the Philippines and China are signatories to the UNCLOS.

As it turned out, China submitted to the UNCLOS ahead of the Philippines to officially lay claim to Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, located at Bajo de Masinloc, just off our own Zambales province in the West Philippine Sea (WPS). China quietly submitted last month to the United Nations (UN) Secretary General its own crafted chart of baselines of territorial sea.

Per China’s version of their maritime territories, their baselines map encompassed all the way to what they named as Ren’ai Jiao to Xianbin Jiao and from Houteng Jiao to Huangyan Dao.

But it was only last Tuesday that Ambassador Antonio Lagdameo, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the UN in New York, contested China’s submission to the UNCLOS. “Bajo de Masinloc has always been an integral part of the territory of the Philippines. Only the Philippines, in the exercise of its sovereignty, has the right to establish baselines, and the breadth of the territorial sea around Bajo de Masinloc, in line with the UNCLOS,” Lagdameo declared before the UN General Assembly.

Just a few years back, we lost to China’s initiatives some of the underwater features in the Benham Rise, which was recently renamed as the Philippine Rise. At least five of these features now bear Chinese names by virtue of China’s application before the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and its subsequent approval in 2017.

By virtue of which, these features are now internationally recognized as Jinghao Seamount and Tianbao Seamount, both located some 70 nautical miles east of Cagayan; Haidonquing Seamount further east at 190 nautical miles; Cuiqiao Hill and Jujiu Seamount, both form the central peaks of the Philippine Rise undersea geological province itself off the coast of Aurora province.

Philippine Ambassador to China Jaime FlorCruz delivered a formal protest in Beijing. However, it came a few years too late as Beijing’s proposals to rename undersea features were already submitted to the IHO’s Sub-committee on Undersea Feature Names (SCUFN) as early as 2015. The Philippines is not a member of the 12-nation SCUFN.

This came to public knowledge only after it appeared in the Facebook post in February 2018 of professor Dr. Jay Batongbacal, a director of the University of  the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea. The IHO approved China’s renaming even if the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf had already granted the Philippines full territorial claim to Philippine Rise in 2012, Batongbacal recalled. In 2019, the IHO rejected the Philippines’ bid to reverse the approval of China’s renaming.

Sadly, it seems to be déjà vu again in the belated government initiatives on our UNCLOS rights at WPS.

We already lost to Beijing the Panganiban (Mischief) Reef in the WPS – now turned into fully functioning airfield, naval facility cum military camp outside China. Are we going to lose Panatag Shoal next?

Lagdameo, quoting his immediate boss, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Enrique Manalo, asserted that multilateralism is underwritten by a rules-based order governed by international laws and informed by the principles of equity and justice, that safeguard the rights of all States like the Philippines and China.

“China’s response, of announcing baselines around the Bajo de Masinloc or Scarborough Shoal, situated off the western coast of Luzon Island, Philippines, and depositing with the UN Secretary General a chart of baselines of territorial sea showing straight baselines and outer limits of the territorial sea, as well as a list of geographical coordinates of points in relation thereto, is a violation of UNCLOS and undermines the rules-based international order,” Lagdameo argued.

Lagdameo delivered and read the statement during the UN General Assembly’s debate on “Oceans and Law of the Sea” where he cited anew the 1982 UNCLOS and the binding July 2016 Arbitral Award which constitute the foundation of the Philippines’ policy on the SCS. Lagdameo also reported to the same UN body the two landmark laws the Philippines enacted this year: the Philippine Maritime Zones Act and the Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act.

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) signed these two new laws on Nov. 8 this year as Republic Act (RA) 12064 and RA 12065, respectively, aimed at strengthening our country’s foothold of WPS under UNCLOS. RA 12064 declared the Philippines’ maritime zones in accordance with the standards set by the UNCLOS, designating the country’s archipelagic sea lanes, including the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

On the other hand, RA 12065 establishes a system of archipelagic sea lanes and air routes, through which foreign vessels and aircraft shall exercise the right of archipelagic sea lanes passage. “Our people, especially our fisherfolk, should be able to pursue their livelihood free from uncertainty and harassment. We must be able to harness mineral and energy resources in our seabed,” PBBM said, citing the significance of the twin laws.

Although supposedly enjoying the “iron-clad” commitment of the United States to its Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines, PBBM has been publicly calling upon all Philippine government officials to tone down rhetorics on the WPS issue. On Tuesday, PBBM told reporters: “If we look at the evolution of the situation in the West Philippine Sea, the Philippines has never been an agent of escalation of tensions.”

This was to deflect persistent justifications by Beijing on the continuing incidents involving People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy ships and Chinese Coast Guard vessels ramming, if not water-cannoning or laser-targetting Philippine ships, even Filipino fishing boats within our own EEZ.

But for the nth time, the Philippines was apparently beaten to the draw again by China. And it is not even about a competitive race. Beijing literally played us with its bully tactics while quietly complying with the “rules-based international order,” albeit selectively.