Noise is waste
Supreme Court associate justice Antonio Carpio says the stationing of Chinese ships at a sandbar just five kilometers from Pag-asa Island already constitutes an invasion of the Philippines by China. And of course he is right, not only because he is an expert on the law, but also because there is no other way to describe the transgression.
The problem is, this is not a matter of terminologies. This is no contest on who gets to describe something precisely. It is about what anyone can do about it. And the sad fact is that no one can do anything. Oh yes, Carpio has something to say about that as well. He says that under international law, any failure to complain can be taken to mean acquiescence.
And Carpio is right again. The Philippines ought to complain. It ought to make noise. But the problem is, again, it is not for lack of wanting to complain that we are no longer complaining. Nobody beats the Philippines in complaining. We are a noisy lot. Sadly our noise has taken us nowhere, or more precisely, it has taken us only as far as the International Arbitral Tribunal. Beyond that, no more.
And why long for more? We did get a favorable ruling in our beef with China, remember. It was a resounding victory for the Philippines, in that it not only validated our own claims in the South China Sea but, more importantly, it repudiated China's own claims over the entire expanse. Unfortunately again, the victory was only on paper.
True enough, as soon as the arbitral tribunal handed down its verdict, China responded with a massive artificial island building in the South China Sea that no one, not even the great United States could stop. Not only has China shown, in word and in deed, that it owns what it claims, but such words and deeds have gained de facto acceptance by everyone, the United States included.
You do not believe me? Then why the heck must the great United States Navy publish in advance any intention to pass through the South China Sea in furtherance of its right to freedom of navigation. If freedom of navigation truly exists, why must it be necessary for the US, or for anyone else, to telegraph its punches? If there is truly freedom of navigation, why doesn't the United States just go ahead and do it without telling anyone.
The fact is, even the United States, by its actions, has already come to accept the true situation in the South China Sea. And if it continues to make some noises, that is all just for show. It is simply going through the motions. After all, it does not want to come away looking like a wimp. And that brings us back to Carpio.
To Carpio, the least we could do is make some noise. And to be sure, that is very easy to do. We can all make some noise right now. The problem is, it is not going to get us anywhere. Painful as that may be to accept, that is how the situation stands. And unless China suddenly collapses, which is not likely, that is how it will be, if not forever, then for a very long time. In the meantime, no situation can be so dire as not to make the best of, or even profit from.
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