SUMMARY OF JUSTICE ANTONIO T. CARPIO’S DISCUSSION ON DEFENDING
PHILIPPINE SOVEREIGN RIGHTS IN THE WEST PHILIPPINE SEA
Justice Antonio T. Carpio (Ret) in a lecture video presented for the Institute for
Maritime and Ocean Affairs over a year ago clearly and strongly reiterated his
stand that we as, Filipinos, must “fight” this battle with China and that we must
preserve our sovereign rights at the West Philippine Sea through the Rule of law.
He said that we, as Filipinos, can “fight” and not just do nothing. He
enumerated the ways we can do this “fight”: First, encourage all navies of the
world to exercise freedom of navigation in the high seas and EEZs of the South
China Sesa to affirm and enforce the ruling of the Tribunal. Second, ask the
peoples of the world to help the Phils., Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei
explain to the Chinese people that China has no historic claim to the South
China Sea. Lastly, continue resorting to the Rule of Law as embodied in the
UNCLOS. War is not an option and never has been.
So, why should we fight for the area? Is it really that important to us? The answer
is a resounding yes. The South China Sea is one of the most important
waterways nowadays because of trading. It is also rich in resources. Although, it
accounts only to 2.5% of the total water areas in the world, it contributes 12% of
the annual global fish. The area is also rich in Methane Hydrates, a natural gas
that is estimated to be more abundant than oil and gas combined. China
wants this resource as well because it is estimated that Methane Hydrates in the
South China Sea could power the Chinese economy for at least 100 years.
It is a known fact that China did not participate in the Arbitral Tribunal
proceedings because they did not want to. Instead, they submitted a position
paper stating that they own the South China Sea since over 2000 years ago.
They claimed they were the first country to discover, name, explore and exploit
the resources of the South China Sea Islands and first to continuously exercise
sovereign powers over them. They submitted their nine-dashed line Map saying
they own everything within the line.
Justice Carpio countered China’s historical narrative as historically false. Even if
China as spread this historical narrative to their citizens, they claim is bereft of
truth as evidenced by various historical maps of their own country, our country
and several countries in Southeast Asia. In their historical maps, it has always
been that the southernmost part of their territory was Hainan. It was only in
1946 that the great leap of China and they began seizing islands in the South
China Sea. The 1734 Murillo Velarde Map, the most important map of the Phils is
the first map that gave a name to Scarborough Shoal – Panacot (danger).
While the maps in the Atlas of Ancient China showed that their southern most
part is Hainan. Hence, China’s claim is historically false.
However, China is very adamant about their claim even after the Tribunal
ruling. Before Chinese Pres. Xi Jin Ping visited the Philippines in 2018, Ambassador
Zhao Jianhua wrote an opinion article at the Philippine Star starting his article
with “Being separated by only a narrow strip of water, China and the Philippines
have been close neighbors for centuries.” This was a reiteration of what Chinese
Foreign Minister Wang Yi in his statement in Washington DC in Feb. 2016.
Obviously, the Philippines is not a close neighbor of China.
Chinese officials even went as far as saying that Chinese navigator Zhen He
made multiple visits to the Manila Bay, Visayas and Sulu on his 7 overseas
voyage seeking friendship and cooperation. Zhen He did not do that as
evidenced by historical records of his voyages.
Based on the evidences presented, the Arbitral Tribunal ruled that the West
Philippine Sea is ours and that there was no legal basis for China to claim historic
rights using their the nine-dash line map. As Filipinos, we should rejoice that it
was decided in our favor, However, it should not stop at that, as we should do
our part in this “fight”.