If the International Tribunal will not apply the UNCLOS to
the ongoing dispute in the South China Sea ,
then it would mean the end of that particular Convention.
This was stressed by Associate Justice Antonio Carpio during
Wednesday's "Perspective on the Issues Involving the West Philippine
Sea," which was held at the AFP Commissioned Officer's Club at Camp Aguinaldo ,
Quezon City
The latter event was hosted by the Department of National
Defense.
UNCLOS is short for United Nations Convention on the Law of
the Sea.
"Why is it important to apply UNCLOS to the South China
Sea dispute, because if we don’t apply it then UNCLOS, the Constitution for the
ocean and seas of our planet cannot also apply to any maritime dispute in the
rest of the oceans and seas of the world, it would be the beginning of the end
of UNCLOS," he added.
And should this happen, Carpio said the rule of the
"naval cannon will prevail in the oceans and seas."
This will trigger a naval arms race among coastal countries,
he added.
"Just imagine if the tribunal says we don’t have
jurisdiction, the Nine-Dash Line is valid then what will happen, the only way
we can protect our ourselves is to acquire warships, warplanes, anti-ship
missiles, resources that should go to education, infrastructure, and social
services will have to be re-allocated to defense and, no matter how many
warships we buy we cannot defeat China, we can only hope to deter China but
there is no way we can win in a total war, so its totally useless," Carpio
pointed out.
"(And) if the tribunal says there is no jurisdiction,
the Nine-Dash Line prevailed, then there is no law of the sea anymore,
everybody will have to arm, every nation will have to arm itself but that’s not
enough to resolve the dispute, it will just worsen the dispute, and the judges
in the tribunal will be out of job because nobody will follow the law of sea
anymore," he said.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=787562
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