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Map showing the disputed areas in the Western Philippine Sea (South China Sea), including the Spratlys Islands and Scarborough Shoal. (Image from AFP)
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines may consider entering into an agreement with Vietnam, Malaysia and several Western countries to “strengthen” the July 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, Netherlands, Chief Deputy Judge retired from the Supreme Court Antonio Carpio said Monday.
According to him, such an agreement should guarantee freedom of navigation and overflight in the area in accordance with international laws and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Carpio, who was part of the legal team that defended the Philippines’ case in court, raised this proposal as a next step for the Philippines after President Rodrigo Duterte invoked Manila’s arbitration victory before the General Assembly of Nations last week. United.
“Vietnam and Malaysia actually support the arbitration award. The arbitration ruling says that in the Spratlys, there are no geological features that generate an exclusive economic zone, only territorial sea. We can celebrate a convention with Malaysia and Vietnam… that in the Spratlys, there are only territorial seas and beyond those territorial seas, it will be the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, ”Carpio said in an interview on the ABS-CBN news channel.
Carpio said the Philippines can also include Indonesia and Brunei, which also have overlapping claims in the South China Sea, in the deal.
Other coastal nations, including western states, may also be invited to join the convention, he added.
“We can also invite the United States, France, Great Britain, Australia, Japan and all the other coastal states to join the convention and that will strengthen the ruling. I’m sure the United States and its allies will join that convention because they are actually doing so now. They are sailing in the Western Philippine Sea, exercising freedom of navigation, ”said the retired judge.
“That convention can simply say that, according to the arbitration award, the islands in the Spratlys can only generate a territorial sea and beyond the territorial sea is the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. Vietnam will recognize that; Malaysia will recognize it. So we are strengthening the ruling, “he added.
China, under its extensive nine-dash line claim over the South China Sea, has been asserting ownership of the Spratly Islands and its many reefs, as well as other parts of the Western Philippine Sea.
China insisted it has “historical rights” by asserting its ownership of the strategic waterway in the Asian region.
On July 12, 2016, the CPA issued its decision in favor of the Philippines case and invalidating China’s nine-line claim, but Beijing has repeatedly refused to acknowledge the ruling.
KGA
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