Phl, China told: Panatag’s for all

THE PHILIPPINES did not win it all in The Hague. For one, the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled last July 12 that the rich fishery resources of Panatag shoal off Zambales do not belong only to the Philippines but also to China and others who traditionally fish there.

If proximity were the only criterion (it is not), Filipinos should have prior rights to Panatag. The shoal is only 120 nautical miles from Zambales – and 530 nm from Hainan island, the nearest China landmass in the South China Sea.

In its 15 submissions, the Philippines did not ask the arbitral court to drive out or ban the Chinese, but only to declare illegal under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea their harassing and barring Filipinos from Panatag.

We highlight Panatag out of many disputed areas, because of (1) the misimpression that the tribunal had ordered the Chinese out, (2) the continued exclusion of Filipino fishermen, and (3) the inadequate assistance being given them.

Also known as Bajo de Masinloc in Spanish times, Huangyan Dao to the Chinese, and Scarborough to much of the world, Panatag had been a fishing ground to generations of Filipinos until 2012 when the previous administration left them at the mercy of the Chinese coast guard.

Panatag is well within the country’s 200-nm Exclusive Economic Zone, but the PCA ruled that China and the Philippines must share its fishery resources between them and with others. That award (ruling) remains a dead letter as China, the neighborhood bully, refuses to honor it.

Without power to resolve sovereignty disputes, the tribunal was silent in its 479-page award on who owns Panatag. Ownership equates to sovereignty, which involves the exercise of the full power and authority of the state.

The tribunal classified Panatag as “high-tide features” (rocks), which generate only a 12-nm territorial sea – not a 200-nm EEZ, or a more extensive continental shelf.

The panel sent to The Hague by the previous administration that has been congratulating itself for its “victory” may want to take time to explain – especially to the displaced fishermen – why an area 120 nm from Zambales is deemed outside the country’s 200-nm EEZ.

Under the Law of the Sea convention, rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no EEZ or continental shelf. However, they do count for territorial claims, i.e. claims of up to 12 nm of territorial waters.

• PCA explains why nobody owns Panatag

UNDER the UNCLOS, a country can only claim sovereignty over its land and up to 12 nautical miles of sea perpendicular to its coastline (base line). Panatag lies beyond the 12-nm limit from the Luzon coast.

On Page 232 of its award, the tribunal said “Scarborough shoal includes five to seven rocks that are exposed at high tide and is accordingly a high-tide feature. That those protrusions are composed of coral is immaterial to their classification.

“On any account, the protrusions above high tide at Scarborough shoal are minuscule. This is confirmed by photographs in the record. They obviously could not sustain human habitation in their naturally formed state; they have no fresh water, vegetation, or living space and are remote from any feature possessing such features.

“Scarborough shoal has traditionally been used as a fishing ground by fishermen from different states, but the tribunal recalls that economic activity in the surrounding waters must have some tangible link to the high-tide feature itself before it could begin to constitute the economic life of the feature.

“There is no evidence that the fishermen working on the reef make use of, or have any connection to, the high-tide rocks at Scarborough shoal. Nor is there any evidence of economic activity beyond fishing.”

The South China Morning Post reported last April that China plans to build an outpost on Panatag and may add an airstrip. Missiles fired from there could hit Manila as well as Clark Field and Subic Bay, among the bases the United States has been allowed to use for military operations.

That possibility has driven the US and its allies into a frenzy of defensive calculations. President Rodrigo Duterte, the man caught in the vortex of the power play, has not disclosed his plans aside from talking directly to Beijing and avoiding warlike moves that the country cannot afford anyway.

Aside from the military and diplomatic concerns, President Duterte must address the Panatag simmering situation, including looking after displaced Filipino fishermen.

• SC suspends 2 lawyers for P2-M TRO

THE SUPREME Court, meanwhile, has slapped attorney Luis Lokin a three-year suspension and his sidekick lawyer Sikini Labastilla one year for “imputing judicial corruption.”

Court records show that Lokin was found guilty of scheming the issuance in 2005 of a Philcomsat Holding Corp. check for P2 million on a PHC account at the Bank of the Philippine Islands.

The check was issued to “CASH” with a notation “Cash for Sbayan TRO” and, per record of the case, encashed by Lokin’s driver at the BPI branch in a PHC-owned office space at the Pacific Star building in Makati.

The check bore the same date as a Sandiganbayan TRO that was served on the legitimate PHC owners who at that time were kept out of the 80-percent Philcomsat subsidiary while agents of the Presidential Commission on Good Government were inside bleeding PHC of P800 million over time.

The irony was that the PCGG looters were allegedly buying TROs on the legitimate PHC owners using the company’s own money. The legitimacy of the private owners versus the PCGG agents has been affirmed in a separate SC decision.

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