THE arbitral ruling invalidating China’s nine-dash line over the West Philippine Sea in the framework of the Code of Conduct among members of the Association of Southeast Nations and Beijing will not be mentioned, the Foreign Affairs department said Tuesday.
A toned-down joint communique, expected to be released this week at the end of the 50th Asean Foreign Ministers Meeting would also follow the tone of the 30th Asean Summit last May, which failed to explicitly mention China’s militarization of disputed areas in the South China Sea, Japanese news agencies reported.
Foreign Affairs spokesperson Assistant Secretary Robespierre Bolivar said the framework, which would contain an outline of the proposed COC, would be “endorsed” by foreign ministers of the 10 Asean member-countries at the end of the summit.
“I haven’t seen the actual, to tell you honestly, but the general headings…the outline, the nature of the Code of Conduct, what principles govern the behavior of [the nations]. I would think it’s something more generic so there’s no specific mention [of the arbitral ruling],” he said after his briefing.
In a related development, Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio warned the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte might be violating the Constitution if it pushed through with its planned “joint venture” with China in the West Philippine Sea.
Carpio stressed that any joint exploration or exploitation with China of minerals in the disputed West Philippine Sea, which had been declared part of the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, would violate the country’s sovereignty.
‘‘The language of the Constitution is explicit that the exclusive economic zone is part of the national territory and that it should be for the enjoyment and exploitation exclusively of Filipinos alone. We cannot enter into joint development within the EEZ,” the senior magistrate said in an interview.
According to him, while the government may enter into contracts with China or other countries, such contracts cannot be done through sovereign agreements.
He said the other country may act only as a contractor, but not as a sovereign entity.
“Other countries can enter as contractor but not as a sovereign [signatory] because that is prohibited by the Constitution—the EEZ is exclusively ours. We can ask other countries if they have the technology but we don’t give up our sovereign rights because that is prohibited under our Constitution,” Carpio said.
Carpio added that a joint development within the nation’s EEZ would be tantamount to conceding sovereignty to China.
The SC magistrate cited the Scarborough Shoal and Benham Rise.
“Scarborough Shoal is defined as part of the Philippine territory under our domestic law. Of course we cannot concede any of our sovereign rights or sovereignty of our Scarborough Shoal,” Carpio stressed.
“We also have sovereign rights over Benham Rise because we have exclusive right to explore and exploit the oil, gas and other mineral resources in that area which has been confirmed by the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf as part of the extended continental shelf of the Philippines,” he said.
Nonetheless, Carpio suggested that should the Duterte administration pursue its plan to forge a joint exploitation with China, the deal “will have to avoid language that implies that we recognize sovereignty of China or sovereign right of China over the areas in the West Philippine Sea.”
Carpio reiterated that the award by the Permanent Court of Arbitration favoring the Philippines’ claims on the West Philippine Sea against China only resolved the maritime dispute but did not settle the territorial dispute between the Philippines and China, particularly on Scarborough Shoal, due to lack of jurisdiction on the matter.
In its award issued in July last year, the PCA upheld major submissions of the Philippines, including the declaration of China’s nine-dash line as contrary to United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Seas and having no basis in law.
The award also affirmed Philippines’ stance that China’s move to shoo away Filipino fishermen at the disputed Scarborough Shoal was also unlawful.
It also declared that the Mischief Reef, Second Thomas Shoal and Reed Bank as “part of the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of the Philippines, and are not overlapped by any possible entitlement of China.”
Reed Bank is said to be a territory rich in oil and natural gas that could be as a possible alternative for the Malampaya gas fields.
Carpio made the statement after President Duterte declared in his Second State of the Nation Address last July 24 that Philippines and China might conduct a joint exploration in disputed areas in the West Philippine Sea.
Saying Manila cannot wage a war against militarily superior Beijing, President Duterte said the two countries’ joint exploration activities may be similar to a “joint venture.”
‘‘When they start to excavate the gas and all, I tell you, it’s going to be just like a joint venture,” Duterte said.
Bolivar said there was progress in coming up with a legally binding Code of Conduct, described by some diplomatic sources as rather sluggish, with Asean member states only gaining significant progress when a non-binding Declaration of Conduct in the South China Sea was introduced in 2002.
The endorsement is supposed to kickstart the process of crafting an actual Code of Conduct to “govern the behavior” of countries with competing claims in the West Philippine Sea, Bolivar said.
“Now what we’re trying to achieve is more than just binding, it’s an effective Code of Conduct….We’re hopeful because of the commitment between the Asean and China…we finish the framework ahead of time,” he said.
The toned-down stance since the Philippines took over of the Asean chairmanship is in stark difference taken when Laos chaired the Asean bloc last September 2016, where Asean member states called out China’s militarization activities in the disputed waters.
Ask on how will the country’s warmer ties with China affect the joint communiqué and outcome documents of the Asean, Bolivar stressed that they would remain faithful to what would be raised during the foreign ministers’ meet this week.
As chair, our role is to accurately reflect the discussions that will happen around the table. And the AMM as a joint communiqué, is a negotiating statement, so all member-states of the Asean will have to negotiate that joint communiqué, so it will reflect all the interests of the Asean as a grouping and on a personal [level, the] individual interests of the countries,” Bolivar said.
He likewise said that the issue on countering terrorism and violent extremism was “high on the agenda” of the meeting, along with the issue on the North Korean ballistic missiles.
‘‘Definitely, counterterrorism and violence [are] high on the agenda of the Asean, and we expect the ministers to have a fairly extensive discussion on the topic,” Bolivar said.
‘‘We have an agenda item on exchange of views on regional and international security issues. As chair, the secretary’s primary role is to make sure that all ministers around the table have a chance to speak freely and that the discussions are candid and free-flowing. Any of the foreign ministers can actually raise the issue of the DPRK or any other issue for that matter,” he added.
‘The Asean Foreign Ministers Meeting and post-ministerial conference meetings will be held from Aug. 2 to 8 in Manila, with 10 Asean foreign ministers and their counterparts from 17 regional partners including the US, Japan, China, Australia, Russia, South Korea and North Korea in attendance. With John Paolo Bencito
