Spratlys pushed as marine park

MANILA, Philippines – Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has proposed a “win-win” solution that the government can offer China to finally resolve the maritime dispute in the South China Sea.

In an interview, Carpio suggested that the government should push for a peace agreement with China and other claimants in the Spratlys by declaring the area as an international marine park and protected area, as originally suggested by American marine biology professor John McManus.

Carpio, a member of the legal team that prepared the Philippines’ case before the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), believes the proposal would make claimant-nations like China and the Philippines “suspend all their territorial claims for 50 or 100 years and allow the reef to regrow and be the breeding ground of fish.”

“The larvae of the eggs that are spawned in the Spratlys are carried by currents all the way to the coast of China, Vietnam, Luzon, Palawan, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Sulu Sea. Everybody benefits,” Carpio explained.

Carpio also echoed the proposal of McManus to convert military facilities into marine research and eco-tourism facilities.

Under the plan, naval military forces would not be allowed to patrol the area and only civilian coast guards would be allowed to have personnel and ships there.

Carpio noted that this proposed system had worked in resolving the tensions between Israel and Jordan in the Red Sea.

As part of that peace agreement, claimant-nations also agreed to put up a peace park over the disputed water area.

“It is a proposal that is a win-win solution for everybody. Nobody loses face because the disputes are set aside for the next 50 to 100 years and everybody benefits from that solution,” he stressed.

Carpio pointed out that the PCA award only resolved the maritime dispute, but did not settle the territorial dispute between the Philippines and China, particularly on Scarborough Shoal, due to lack of jurisdiction on the matter.

But he still believes it is best to prevent further dredging and reclamation in the disputed islands and reefs so as to preserve what is left “for the benefit of all the coastal states.”

In its award issued last Tuesday, the PCA upheld major submissions of the Philippines, including the declaration of China’s nine-dash line as contrary to United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS) and has no basis in law.

The award also affirmed Philippines’ stance that China’s move to shoo away Filipino fishermen at the disputed Scarborough Shoal was unlawful.?It also declared Mischief Reef, Second Thomas Shoal and Reed Bank as “part of the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of the Philippines, and are not overlapped by any possible entitlement of China.”

Carpio, whom President Duterte consults on the matter, believes China will not easily abandon the structures it illegally built in the islands declared by PCA as Philippine territory.

“Legally, that structure there of China (in Mischief Reef) is against UNCLOS, therefore it is an illegal structure, and legally they should vacate. But of course China will not vacate. It will take time,” he said.

Carpio said what is more urgent is the development of Reed Bank, which contains natural gas.  

But he noted that any joint development with China on Reed Bank would be against the Philippine Constitution.