The Philippines won a big legal and moral victory in the verdict of The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration regarding our maritime dispute with China in the South China Sea.
We asked China expert Chito Sta. Romana to be our resource person at the latest Saturday Forum@Annabel’s and give us his views on what we should do now, given the favorable “award” or verdict of the arbitral tribunal composed of experts on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or Unclos.
The verdict, as we know, consists of five key points.
One, China does not have historic rights to the South China Sea and that its “nine-dash line” claim has no legal basis. Even if China had historic rights to resources in the waters of the South China Sea.
Two, none of the Spratly Islands is capable of generating extended maritime zones. Hence, the tribunal declared certain sea areas within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Philippines, because those areas are not overlapped by any possible entitlement of China.
Three, China violated the Philippines’s sovereign rights in its EEZ by interfering with Philippine fishing and petroleum exploration, constructing artificial islands and failing to prevent Chinese fishermen from fishing in the zone. Chinese law-enforcement vessels also unlawfully created a serious risk of collision when they physically obstructed Philippine vessels.
Four, China caused severe harm to the coral-reef environment and violated its obligation to preserve and protect fragile ecosystems and the habitat of depleted, threatened, or endangered species.
And five, China’s actions since the start of the arbitration had aggravated the dispute between
the parties.
Sta. Romana agreed with the view that enforcement of the ruling is a big problem, since China, right from the start, refused to take part in the proceedings and even described the verdict as “null and void” when it was released on July 12.
He emphasized that the Philippines should adopt a two-pronged approach, engagement and deterrence, in dealing with our next-door neighbor that seeks to assert ownership over nearly 85 percent of the South China Sea through the so-called nine-dash line.
Engagement could take the form of bilateral and multilateral talks with China to thresh out issues, while deterrence could involve building a credible defense posture on the part of the Philippines, so that the Chinese do not bully us with “gunboat diplomacy” as what they have been doing to our fishermen in Scarborough Shoal.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio has said in another gathering that the Philippines could take legal steps to address the maritime conflict. It can ask China for compensation over the damage done on the marine environment in the Spratlys by dredging a total of 17 reefs and building islands on seven reefs.
Moreover, the Philippines can also ask that the processing of China’s application on an extended continental shelf claim in the South China Sea be suspended. And we can also sue the China National Offshore Oil Co. in Canada, where they have assets, if China drills for natural gas in the Reed Bank.
Carpio deserves kudos for doing rigorous research to help Filipinos understand the nuances of our territorial dispute with China.
Likewise, Sta. Romana has also been very helpful in explaining the developments in the territorial dispute in the South China Sea to the media, academe and policy-makers. A former Beijing bureau chief of ABC News, Sta, Romana lived in China for nearly 40 years since 1971. He speaks fluent Mandarin and has an intimate knowledge of Chinese politics, society and culture from the Mao era up to the present. He would be a definite asset to the Duterte administration in any possible talks with Beijing on the South China Sea issue.
What’s keeping PHL from reducing poverty?
Sisyphus is the figure in Greek mythology who was punished by the gods for all eternity to roll a rock up a mountain only to have it roll back down to the bottom when he reaches the top.
That, it seems to me, is the sad fate of the Philippine economy, for we have to aspire constantly for higher economic growth and, yet, we find ourselves no nearer to putting an end to widespread poverty despite our best efforts. One obstacle to making our economic growth serve the goal of making poverty history, of course, is our vulnerability to natural disasters as we are hit by no less than 20 destructive typhoons every year that destroy agricultural crops and public infrastructure.
Then there’s one other factor that impedes efforts to uplift the lives of the poor: our rapidly growing population.
According to Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia, the poverty rate could have been reduced by an additional 7 to 8 percentage points had 40 percent of women been given access to family-planning methods, so they would have just three children instead of six.
Since 1990, we have been able to reduce poverty incidence only by about 7 percent, which stood at 26.3 percent in the first semester of 2015 according to government data.
For Pernia, “there is room for reducing poverty.”
The Duterte administration wants to achieve inclusive growth through regional development. The government has set an economic growth target of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent this year and 7 percent to 8 percent next year. But growth could surpass 8 percent if there will be enough foreign direct investments and the Duterte administration succeeds in spreading economic growth to areas outside Manila.
The new administration should fully implement the reproductive- health law to promote responsible parenthood and family planning nationwide. Otherwise, our best efforts in economic development would be negated by a burgeoning population, thus, consigning us to a Sisyphean fate that keeps us forever rolling back to the bottom every time we reach the top.
E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com.