Enriched by having dealt with issues at close range and without the restrictions of toeing the government line, former government officials usually are the voice of wisdom on current issues.
Such was speech of former Foreign Secretary Roberto R. Romulo (Ramos administration) at the Manila Times Business Forum last Wednesday on Philippine –China relations which he described as “at a historic low.”
Romulo said there is no magic solution to the strained relations between the two countries.
China’s 9-dashed line map, which was recently expanded to 10 dashes, goes against the “concept of global commons” which was the foundation of the 1982 United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said in a speech delivered on the 75th Anniversary of the College of Law of the University of San Agustin in Iloilo City last Aug. 30.
Thus,Carpio said, China fisheries laws particularly giving Hainan, China southernmost province, exclusive jurisdiction over the waters in the South China Sea as well as on the fishery resources of Macclesfield Bank is “a grand theft of the global commons in the South China Sea.”
The Philippines is losing the battle that he led the country to wage against China.
Yesterday Del Rosario said that the Philippines will ask the United Nations Arbitral Court to hasten the resolution of the 2013 suit it filed questioning the legality of China’s nine-dash line map in the light of the latter’s expansion activities on islands they are occupying in the disputed areas of the Spratlys in the South China Sea.
Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza had said that they expect the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea to rule on both jurisdiction and merit of the Philippine claim “between 2015 to 2016.” China has refused to participate in the Philippine case.
This article appeared in East-West Center, Asia Pacific Bulletin
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/china%E2%80%99s-new-calculations-in-the-south-china-sea
By Yun Sun
In recent months, China’s unilateral actions asserting its claims in the South China Sea (SCS) have driven regional tensions to a new high. China’s well-calculated moves are motivated by multiple internal and external factors. These include boosting President Xi Jinping’s prestige and authority for his domestic reform agenda, along with an assumption that the United States is extremely unlikely to intervene at this moment in time. Other than the overt actions to assert its claims in the SCS, official statements and legal studies analysis from within China also reflect a recalibrated determination to uphold the country’s controversial nine-dashed line in the South China Sea.
From a Chinese perspective, the most transparent and direct explanation of China’s rising assertiveness in the South China Sea is simple: China believes that its past unilateral restraint has done nothing to improve China’s position regarding SCS disputes and these inactions have in fact resulted in other claimant countries strengthening their presence and claims. Therefore, for China to improve its position in the current climate or for future negotiations, it must first change the status-quo through all available means necessary.
China prefers to utilize civilian and paramilitary approaches but does not reject military coercion if required. An advantaged position and certain exclusive privilege in the South China Sea are both believed to be indispensable for China’s aspiration to become a “strong maritime power,” a “key task” stipulated by the 18th Party Congress in 2012 and a policy personally endorsed by Xi. While China’s aspirations for a “Blue Water Navy” and naval expansion face multiple choke points along its east coast from Japan down to the Philippines, the South China Sea is considered to offer China a much larger and less constrained maritime domain for naval maneuvers.
In a lecture at De La Salle University “Historical Facts, Historical Lies and Historical Rights in the West Philippine Sea”, Carpio took up China’s invitation to look at the “historical facts” by examining not only Chinese ancient maps but also maps of Philippine authorities and other nationalities.
Carpio said “All these ancient maps show that since the first Chinese maps appeared,the southern most territory of China has always been Hainan Island, with its ancient names being Zhuya, then Qiongya, and thereafter Qiongzhou. ““Hainan Island was for centuries a part of Guangdong Province until 1988 when it became a separate province,” he added.
Reporters usually do not get that kind of candidness from more mature and prudent statesmen especially in foreign relations issues.
In other countries, they have department or ministry spokesmen, who do the talking on running issues. But President Aquino is, well, PNoy.
The current tension in the South China Sea triggered by China’s territorial assertiveness underscores the military weakness of the Philippines and the lack of direction of its foreign policy as against Vietnam’s focused moves backed up by a credible defense capacity.
There are three incidents or conflicts going on in South China Sea that have raised the tension to worrisome levels.
One of the incidents involves Vietnam against China over the latter’s setting up of an oil rig in the disputed Paracel islands, 220 kilometers from Vietnam’s shores.
U.S. President Barack Obama’s candid answers to the two questions from Filipinos reporters whether the United States will come to the defense of the Philippines in case of an armed conflict with China over territorial disputes in the South China Sea disappointed a lot of Filipinos who expected him to say that the American soldiers who will be coming under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement will be side-by-side Filipinos in blocking China’s expansion in South China Sea.
Obama didn’t say that in his joint presscon with President Aquino in Malacañang Monday. Instead he reminded the public that the United States and China have a “constructive relationship.”
“ There is enormous trade; enormous business that is done between the United States and China; a whole range of issues on the international stage in which cooperation between the US and China are balanced,” he said.
He said: “ So our goal is not to counter China.Our goal is not to contain China” but “ to make sure that international rules and norms are respected, and that includes in the area of maritime disputes.”
No ifs and buts about it: the Philippines and China are no longer friends.
That’s a decision that the Philippines made when it hauled China to the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal over the latter’s all -South -China -Sea-encompassing 9-dash line map. As former ambassador to the United Nations Lauro Baja said, “When we filed a case against China at the U.N. that was the end of diplomacy.”
The submission of the Memorial on the case today at the U.N. Court’s headquarters at The Hague further reinforced the hostility.
As a sovereign country, the Philippines has every right to choose who to be friends with and who to take on. The Aquino government has chosen to battle with China. It’s a move applauded by allies who are uncomfortable with the enormous strength of modern China but are hesitant to antagonize the world’s second largest economy.
Does Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario have a problem with the case filed with the United Nations Arbitral Court against China’s nine-dash line map that prompted him to commission Social Weather Stations to do a survey which focused on the case and the problem with China in the West Philippine Sea?
SWS conducted a nationwide survey among 1,550 respondents on Dec. 11 through 16.
Foreign Affairs Spokesman Raul Hernandez said they wanted to know the sentiments of the public on specific issues and the results showed that the Filipino people “overwhelmingly” support the case filed by the Philippines at the UN Arbitral Tribunal January last year.
The results could not be less than “overwhelming” what with questions like “Dahil ang Tsina ay malakas sa aspetong military at ekonomiya, sinampahan natin ng kaso ang Tsina sa United nation sa paniniwalang pantay-pantay ang labanan sa ilalim ng batas internasyunal. Sang-ayon ba kayo o hindi?” (Opinion on whether the international law is a great equalizer against countries that are stronger militarily and economically.) Answer: 77% Yes; 15 % No; 8% Don’t know.
