MANILA, April 1 ------ The Philippines should seek another arbitral case to compel China to agree to ground rules in the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, former Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio said Thursday. Carpio made the remark after a Chinese Coast Guard vessel had a close distance maneuvering with a Philippine vessel in the common fishing ground earlier this month.
The 2016 arbitral ruling states that China, Vietnam, and the Philippines can fish in Panatag Shoal, Carpio said. "The first thing to do is agree on the ground rules, how many tons of fish can each party take within the year because we don't want to overfish. There must be ground rules. China even refuses to discuss this," he told ANC's Headstart. "What we can do is bring another case to compel China to agree to ground rules. We quantify the losses of our fishermen already…and we claim damage against China for these losses."
It is important to get the world on the Philippines' side, Carpio said. "We can ask Vietnam to join us in that arbitration so we will get more countries on our side. This is really a question of getting world opinion on your side. We can isolate China by getting the world opinion on our side very clearly," he said. "The (UN) joint assembly is the locus of world opinion. That's exactly what Ukraine is doing, getting the world on its side and it matters."
The Philippines should also conduct joint patrols with other nations, Carpio added. "For me an independent foreign policy is a policy that protects our national interest and we are not protecting the interest of any other country. Countries are allowed to forge common collective self-defense," he said. "We should do a joint patrol not only with US but with other countries like Malaysia and Vietnam. Even ask Indonesia to join. If you band together you will have a stronger position. China wants a bilateral dispute, it doesn't want to internationalize the dispute because it doesn't want to be isolated."
Other nations have sought alliance with the US as it is the only one that can "counter-balance China," according to Carpio. "Even a country like South Korea, Japan, they pay US to station troops in their country because this ensures if there’s an attack on them the US will be involved right away," he said. "That's the same policy in Europe. Poland wants US troops to be there because it’s a tripwire. Ukraine wants to be a part of NATO because that is an assurance that if Ukraine is attacked all the rest of NATO will defend Ukraine. Right now Ukraine is all alone."
The country needs a president who will assert its rights in the West Philippine Sea, Carpio said. "My personal opinion is in the last 6 years (President Rodrigo) Duterte has been saying 'I am inutile in the West Philippine Sea,' if we have another 6 yrs of a president saying the same thing then we will probably lose the West Philippine Sea already," he said. "(Ferdinand) Marcos Jr has said 'talo na tayo sa West Philippine Sea, wag na tayo bumili ng mga barko, jet planes.' He has a defeatist policy, an appeasement policy, exactly what Duterte is doing. If you do that talo ka talaga."
Source: news.abs-cbn.com
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