PHL envoy to ASEAN speaks at Jakarta foreign correspondents club forum on the West Philippines Sea; explains arbitration ruling, 49th AMM joint communique

From the Philippine News Agency (Aug 6): PHL envoy to ASEAN speaks at Jakarta foreign correspondents club forum on the West Philippines Sea; explains arbitration ruling, 49th AMM joint communique

Philippine Permanent Representative to ASEAN Ambassador Elizabeth Buensuceso recently spoke at a forum at the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club.

In her speech, Ambassador Buensuceso talked about the recent arbitral tribunal ruling on the West Philippine Sea in the presence of local and foreign journalists, think-tanks, and members of the diplomatic corps.

Buensuceso discussed the history of the arbitration case, which was initiated by the Philippines. She also mentioned the highlights of the ruling and she explained the significance of the said ruling to leaders, diplomats, and to the ordinary Filipino. During her talk, she shed light on misleading news reports surrounding the Joint Communiqué of the 49th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting held recently in Vientiane, Laos.

The Ambassador described how ordinary Filipinos reacted to the announcement of the July 12 ruling, when the five judges of the Arbitral Tribunal bared their much anticipated judgment in a unanimous award in favor of the Philippines.

According to Buensuceso, the jubilation that broke out when the judgment was made public was akin to ” Manny Pacquiao winning over Floyd Mayweather 100 times over.”

Buensuceso reasoned that there was enough cause for jubilation. The five judges, reputed to be of impeccable integrity and profound experience on the subject matter, voted unanimously and overwhelmingly, 14.5, out of the 15 submissions that the Philippines brought before the tribunal, she said, basically rejecting China’s claim to the nine-dash line and declaring China’s activities in the area unlawful.

Filipinos expressed their thanks to the Philippine legal and diplomatic team headed by former Secretary Albert del Rosario and Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, she said.

However, the leaders of the Philippines viewed the situation with more sobriety and self-control knowing that it would not be easy for China to accept the ruling, as it has repeatedly rejected the legality of the tribunal, much less its judgment, Ambassador Buensuceso mentioned in her speech. President Rodrigo Duterte and Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay chose not to “gloat and flaunt”, she added.

The Ambassador lamented the statements that came from Beijing as these flared up the people’s nationalistic sentiments. She further discussed that such statements “do not support the stature of a rising power in the world and one that has vowed to abide by and adhere to the principles of UNCLOS having been one of its avid supporters during the Convention’s protracted negotiations and which it ratified.”

Buensuceso cited the positive assessment of the implications of the ruling for the claimant countries, ASEAN and the world as a whole made by various experts of international maritime law including Dr. Oegrosono, Dr. Robert Beckman, Dr. Justin Nankivell, Dr. Jay Batongbacal , Dr. Ian Storey , Dr. Tang Siew Mun, Dr. Dewi Fortuna Anwar, Mr. Shahriman Lockman and Dr. Le Long Hiep.

She also clarified many news reports that tended to misinterpret the events surrounding the Joint Communiqué of the 49th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting held in Vientiane from July 21 to 26.

The envoy mentioned that the Joint Communiqué has 192 paragraphs, containing important decisions on ASEAN cooperation in the areas of connectivity, biodiversity, human rights, peace and reconciliation, women and children empowerment, countering violent extremism, trade and investment liberalization, disaster management and many others close to the heart of ASEAN and its external partners. Out of this, 9 paragraphs concern the South China Sea, the most important of which is para 2, which states that :

“We reaffirm our shared commitment to maintaining and promoting peace, security and stability in the region, as well as to the peaceful resolution of disputes, including full respect for legal and diplomatic processes, without resorting to the threat or use of force, in accordance with the universally recognized principles of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).”

She explained that while the Philippines proposed many times a reference to the arbitral award in the AMM Joint Communiqué, all the various formulations put forward in the long and protracted drafting negotiations were rejected by one member state without an explanation or a compromise text.

In the end, to avoid a repeat of the 2012 incident when the JC was not issued altogether, the Lao Chair proposed to move the paragraph with the phrase “full respect for legal and diplomatic processes” to the top section of the Joint Communiqué under the heading “ASEAN Community Building” and asked that the direct reference to the tribunal ruling be dropped, which was agreed to by all.

Buensuceso explained that moving the reference to the principle of “full respect of legal and diplomatic processes” under the heading of “ASEAN Community Building” is in fact a significant decision by ASEAN because it enshrines the said principle as a core value of ASEAN community building efforts and incorporates the use of arbitration as a process to resolve disputes.

She told the audience that recent criticisms which have been leveled against the Philippines for having “dropped the ball” in Vientiane are unfair and unfounded. Instead of being vilified, the Philippines should be congratulated and thanked for having stood on a moral high ground to preserve the unity of ASEAN, while fighting for the retention of the core principle of respect for legal and diplomatic processes.

We have won, for ASEAN and the rest of the world, a victory championing the rule of law, which is now enshrined as an important contribution to international maritime law jurisprudence, the Ambassador said.

Finally, Buensuceso discussed the ways forward as announced by President Duterte, allowing cooler heads to prevail and giving time and space for negotiators to find a peaceful settlement of the matter through bilateral negotiations but using the ruling and constitutional provisions to guide the discussions.

She asked that all concerned should refrain from undertaking activities that raise tensions and exacerbate the already inflammable situation to avoid violence and bloodshed. She said that ASEAN and China must work hard to fully implement the DOC and work expeditiously to conclude a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.

She enjoined the audience as equal stakeholders in the peace and stability of the region to give this process a shot so as to “ensure for our children and children’s children the ASEAN vision for a peaceful, stable and resilient Community.”

Other speakers during the forum were Vice Minister Arif Havas Oegroseno, Maritime Sovereignty Deputy of Indonesia’s Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs, Ambassador Nina Hachigian of the US Mission to ASEAN, Professor Dr. Hasyim Djalal, and Mr. Phillips J. Vermonte, Executive Director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies-Indonesia.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=910985