WITH the United States and Asean’s affirmation of support for the four-year-old ruling of the United Nations (UN) arbitral tribunal, the Philippines should seize the initiative in “implementing” the decision, at the very least, by encouraging Filipinos to fish in Scarborough Shoal, and possibly drive away Chinese vessels that are loitering in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), especially in the waters within and surrounding the Pagasa Island. That’s the fearless advice of the former mayor of Palawan’s Kalayaan Island Group (KIG), the municipality where Pagasa belongs.
The Scarborough Shoal near Zambales and other islands covered by China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea (SCS) are currently under a three-month fishing ban that had been unilaterally imposed by Beijing beginning May this year, while Chinese maritime militia vessels masquerading as fishing vessels are prowling the waters of the KIG.
Challenge the fishing ban
FORMER Kalayaan Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon Jr. said the country should begin testing the waters with China, initially by challenging Beijing’s fishing ban over Scarborough—listed by the tribunal as a long-time fishing ground for Southeast Asian fishermen, and therefore not subject to any single nation’s ban—and other maritime waters for which the UN has declared for the Philippines’ exclusive use, especially now that the US and Southeast Asian states have spoken strongly in support of the ruling.
Bito-onon wants the government to take initiatives in implementing the decision and to put some “teeth” behind the US’ and the Asean’s strong declaration against China’s expansive claims—an assertion anchored solely on so-called “historical claims” as manifested in its Nine-Dash Line, which overlaps even into the waters off Ilocos Norte in the north.
Pompeo’s strong message
ON Tuesday (July 14), US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that China has no legal grounds to unilaterally impose its “will” on Southeast Asia as the Nine-Dash Line had been rejected by the Arbitral Tribunal on July 12, 2016, effectively favoring the Philippines, which filed the case following China’s aggressive activities and even bullying in the WPS.
“The PRC [People’s Republic of China] cannot lawfully assert a maritime claim—including any exclusive economic zone [EEZ] claims derived from Scarborough Reef and the Spratly Islands—vis-a-vis the Philippines in areas that the Tribunal found to be in the Philippines’ EEZ or on its continental shelf,” Pompeo declared.
“In line with the Tribunal’s legally binding decision, the PRC has no lawful territorial, or maritime claim, to Mischief Reef or Second Thomas Shoal, both of which fall fully under the Philippines’ sovereign rights and jurisdiction, nor does Beijing have any territorial, or maritime claims generated from these features,” he added.
Last month, Southeast Asian leaders, who were meeting under the Asean, also came out with the position that the SCS dispute should be resolved on the basis of international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (Unclos), on which the Philippines based its maritime case against China before the UN.
Bito-onon said that with the US and the international community behind its back, the Duterte government should start taking actual moves to challenge China’s presence and its activities within the country’s waters. And this could begin by sending Filipino fishermen to Scarborough, their traditional fishing ground.
It could also start booting out Chinese fishing vessels and maritime militia ships in waters within and surrounding Pagasa Island and those covered by the UN ruling—Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas Shoal) and Mischief Reef.
“It may be hard to do but the government must try, given the ruling and the US position,” Bito-onon said, even as he noted that the presence of a large number of Chinese fishing vessels in Pagasa alone poses a big problem for agencies like the Philippine Navy and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.
“It may even be harder, or impossible, for Mischief Reef,” Bito-onon said, noting that the reef had been occupied and turned into a massive military fortress by China’s People’s Liberation Army.
Still, the former mayor said that if the government has to take steps to implement the intent and spirit of the ruling, which, in the first place, was borne by its own action, then now is the best time to do it.
The Duterte administration maintains it could not challenge China militarily, which is a fact, but critics say its defeatist position has also emboldened Beijing to encroach and maintain a permanent presence in the WPS where it harasses and intimidates Filipino fishermen and disrupts the rotational and resupply missions of the Philippine military.
The military mismatch is compounded by President Duterte’s friendly stance with China.
Iron-clad commitment
BEIJING’S aggressive behavior in the WPS prompted Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana to move early last year for a review of the Philippines-US Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) for its alleged “vagueness” as it is silent on whether the US would come to the aid of the Philippines if it is attacked in the disputed region.
The move was prodded by the position of the US during the term of former President Barack Obama that it could not take sides on territorial issues in the South China Sea, while assuring its “iron clad” commitment to the country under the treaty.
However, in March, also last year, Pompeo declared that the treaty covers the WPS.
“Any armed attack on Philippine forces, aircraft or public vessels in the South China Sea will trigger mutual defense obligations,” he said during his meeting with Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.
On July 12, as the Philippines marked the fourth anniversary of the ruling by the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration, Locsin said in a statement that the arbitral award is “non-negotiable.” He again chided China for its insistence on “historical claims” and expressed hope the Asian giant would sincerely work with Southeast Asian nations for a long-awaited code of conduct in the disputed waters.
Two days later, the country’s top diplomat had to face—virtually, via Zoom—his counterpart, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and both affirmed the importance of maintaining decades of wide-ranging relations between Beijing and Manila. They agreed, for the nth time, that the SCS is “not the sum total of our relationship.”
Laymen trust the diplomats for their coded words and actions, because they know many things we don’t; that is their expertise. But down on the ground—or on the water, in this case—other means for signalling a determination to assert one’s rights may sometimes be necessary. And in the view of someone like Mayor Bito-onon who has survived Chinese bullying countless times, the time for sending those signals is now.
Image credits: Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jason Tarleton/U.S. Navy via AP, AP/Bullit Marquez
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