Government urged: File territorial case vs China

MANILA, Philippines — Former Supreme Court senior associate justice Antonio Carpio yesterday urged the Philippine government to challenge China to submit to arbitration its territorial dispute over Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal to finally settle which country has sovereignty.

China earlier accused the Philippines of illegally entering its waters near Panatag Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc, which is within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

“We have to challenge China to submit the dispute to arbitration because that’s the only solution. Let the arbitral tribunal decide who has sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal,” Carpio said in an interview with ANC.

He added that bringing the dispute to arbitration, particularly before the United Nations’ International Court of Justice (ICJ), should be voluntary.

The Department of Foreign Affairs could make an official challenge to China to submit the case to the ICJ and if Beijing refuses, Carpio said, it is because “their claim is weak and they know they will lose.”

“If China really believes that they own it, then they should be willing to submit it to arbitration and we’ll tell the world we’re ready to arbitrate and let the ICJ decide the case and we will abide by that decision,” he said.

Carpio explained that the Philippines’ 2016 arbitral award invalidating China’s nine-dash line virtually claiming the entire South China Sea “was only talking of the maritime dispute,” but the decision can also apply to territorial claims.

“These are two separate disputes governed by different laws. So we have to start a new case on the territorial dispute,” he added.

In 2016, The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in favor of the Philippines and debunked China’s “historic rights” claim over the entire South China Sea.

China, to this day, refuses to recognize the arbitral decision in favor of the Philippines.

Carpio expressed confidence that the Philippines will also win the case should it be brought before the ICJ.

Meanwhile, Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said that a territorial dispute is “totally different” from a dispute over maritime rights in the EEZ, which is the subject of the 2016 arbitral