Palace claims China dialog won’t result in binding deal

From the Daily Tribune (Jul 31): Palace claims China dialog won’t result in binding deal

The Palace maintained yesterday that President Aquino will not engage in bilateral talks with China saying that it is not the solution to resolve the South China Sea territorial conflict. 

Calls were raised anew for Aquino to engage Chinese officials in a dialog as a result of reports on the latest dredging work in the South China Sea that sought to expand man-made islands in the disputed waters.

“It has been repeatedly expressed by the President that such an idea is not practical. If only two countries will talk about the issue, it won’t be binding to the others and won’t solve the problem,” Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr said.

Coloma was reacting to former Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s suggestion for bilateral talks with China since waiting for the results of the arbitration case in the International Tribunal on the Law of the Seas (ITLoS) may take years to complete.

The former senator issued the calls following similar positions from legislators including Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who said the Philippines should not shut the door on bilateral talks and other avenues of diplomacy with China.

Coloma, however, said “these positions have long been expressed and the government’s stand remains firm.”

Lacson said the latest reported Chinese dredging work in the disputed waters still needs to be verified.

Using the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (Unclos) as basis, Coloma said, the country hopes to settle the dispute through arbitration.

About 10 South China Sea reefs were reportedly being dredged by China.

“We still need to verify which locations such activities are taking place because if it is verified, that would add information to bolster our petition,” Coloma said.

Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, in an earlier forum, said China had dredged 10 reefs to extract sand that it uses to reclaim parts of the South China Sea.

The Philippines is awaiting the ruling of the Netherlands-based ITLoS on the maritime entitlements of the country.

China, however, refused to recognize ITLoS’ jurisdiction over the South China Sea dispute.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is investigating reports of new dredging activities of China on the disputed seas and the origin of the buoys or booms recovered by local fishermen in Zambales province near Panatag Shoal, which is now under de facto control of China.

AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Hernando Iriberri told reporters the revelation of SC Justice Antonio Carpio during a forum at Camp Agunaldo the other day was the first time he heard about the new Chinese activities.

“This is the first time I’ve heard about it, so we have to check this…we have to check it, we have not yet talked to Justice Carpio,” Iriberri said.

Carpio also warned of the possible arms race in the region if the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is not applied in resolving the Philippines’ case against China.

Iriberri said that the military is also checking on the source of the buoys or booms discovered by fishermen in Zambales recently.

“We are checking on what really were recovered. There have been some reports that it could have been used for dredging but coming from where? That is yet to be established,” said Iriberri.

“We have to check…we are establishing first what kind of buoys, if they are intended for dredging or mere booms. And we should establish also where did they come from,” he added.

No Chinese activity — AFP

The AFP chief said that based on latest military monitoring at Panatag Shoal, there is no ongoing Chinese activity on the shoal, located approximately 124 nautical miles off Masinloc town which is well within the country’s 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zone.

“As of now, we have not seen any except there are ships,” replied Iriberri when asked if there were ongoing dredging activities in Panatag or Scarborough Shoal where Chinese ships have been deployed since the April 2012 standoff with the Philippines.

Iriberri stressed that the AFP is performing its mandate of protecting the people and the country’s territorial integrity as he maintained Panatag Shoal is an integral part of the Philippine territory.
“It’s ours, that’s very clear,” said Iriberri.

“Our mandate is to protect our people, secure our sovereignty and the national territory, we will do that. That is our job,” Iriberri said.

“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,” Carpio said during the Wednesday forum.

And should this happen, Carpio said the rule of the “naval cannon will prevail in the oceans and seas.”

“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.tribune.net.ph/headlines/palace-claims-china-dialog-won-t-result-in-binding-deal