China has grand domination plan on West PHL Sea–Justice Carpio

From the Business Mirror (Jul 29): China has grand domination plan on West PHL Sea–Justice Carpio

CHINA’S ongoing reclamation activities and its encroachment into the maritime territories of countries that lies within the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) has been planned many years ago under a grand design of dominating Southeast Asia’s most important navigational waters, Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the forum for employees of the Department of National Defense, Carpio said the nine-dash line, which delineated Beijing’s maritime boundaries, spawned this expansive claims and encroached into the territories of Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Carpio, who was among the legal minds behind the arbitral case brought by the country against China, said the nine-dash line eats up 85.7 percent of the whole South China Sea and threatened to rob the Philippines of about 80 percent of its exclusive economic zone.

“China does not need to explain the nine-dash line, you just have to see what it is doing in the South China Sea: reclaiming,” he said, referring to the ongoing massive-reclamation activities in the seven reefs that it occupies, but falls within what is considered by Manila as part of its maritime territory.

In its reclamation, China is not only destroying seven reefs, but a total of 17 reefs as it has made 10 other reefs as sources of filling materials for its reclamation.

“China has damaged 10 other reefs for filling materials for the seven reefs that China occupies,” Carpio said.

The SC senior magistrate said the nine-dash line moved the boundary of China to 64 km away from Balabac in Palawan, 40 km away from the shoreline of Batanes and 70 km away from Burgos in Ilocos Norte.

He said bringing China to arbitration is the only available means to challenge Beijing’s expanded boundary, as past diplomatic efforts to bring the issue to “satisfactory results proved fruitless.”

The country cannot also challenge China militarily and cannot rely on its existing Mutual Defense Treaty with the US. “The country cannot invoke Mutual Defense Treaty, because disputed territory is out of scope,” Carpio said.

Carpio said the South China Sea was too important and very strategic for China, both economically and militarily.

“China want South China Sea as a sanctuary for its nuclear submarines free from the submarine-hunting Poseidon and US attack submarines,” justice said.

Beijing also wanted the international water for its fishing fleet, the largest in the world, and for its gas needs, being the largest importer of petroleum in the world.

Meanwhile, Navy spokesman Col. Edgard Arevalo said the government is closely watching China’s reclamation in the seven reefs, including Subi Reef, which has been identified as the “source of air challenges” against Philippine patrols in the West Philippine Sea.

Subi Reef lies the closest to Ayungin Shoal, which is being guarded by Philippine Navy troops housed in the partly sunken BRP Siera Madre.

Arevalo said China has also permanently stationed a Coast Guard vessel in the shoal.

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/china-has-grand-domination-plan-on-west-phl-sea-justice-carpio/