Carpio: File new arbitration case vs China

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines should file another arbitration case against China, this time after Beijing objected to Manila’s claim of its entitlement to an extended continental shelf in the West Philippine Sea, retired Supreme Court senior associate justice Antonio Carpio said yesterday.

The Philippines will probably win such a case over China since the 2016 Arbitral Award, which invalidated China’s nine-dash-line claim, had already favored the Philippines, according to Carpio.

“Let us bring the dispute to a forum where we cannot lose and can win, and that forum is the UNCLOS tribunal … because the dispute will result in accordance with the facts of the law, and the facts of the law is on our side,” he said, referring to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay media forum.

In mid-June, the Philippine government, through the Philippine mission to the UN in New York, submitted a piece of information before the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf that aimed to register the country’s entitlement to an extended continental shelf located in the western side of Palawan.

A few days later, China filed its opposition before the UN and asserted the Philippine claim “seriously infringed China’s sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction in the South China Sea.”

The UNCLOS states that a country can “claim a maximum of the maritime zone that is 350 nautical miles, 12 nautical miles of territorial sea, up to 200 nautical miles of exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and an additional 100 nautical miles of extended continental shelf,” according to Carpio.

He pointed out that the areas that China currently claims are “more than 350 nautical miles away.”

“There is no way China can win because they are too far away,” he said.

He added that China could no longer bring up its nine-dash line claim, which “has been struck down” by the 2016 Arbitral Award.

The retired SC justice reiterated his suggestion to bring up the arbitration case to the international tribunal; “otherwise, nothing will happen until we die.”

He explained that the arbitration case should follow after a country formally opposed a claim made