Carpio to continue advocacy for Philippine sovereignty

MANILA, Philippines – With less than a week before his retirement, Supreme Court (SC) senior associate justice Antonio Carpio said his defense of the country’s interests in the West Philippine Sea will go beyond his decades-long stint in public service.

“I would soon be retiring from government service, but I will continue defending the West Philippine Sea,” he said in a speech at the joint membership meeting of the Makati Business Club (MBC), Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), Judicial Reform Initiative (JRI) and Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX).

Carpio is one of the most vocal defenders of the country’s position on the West Philippine Sea – as member of the high tribunal and part of the legal team that won for the country an international arbitral ruling invalidating China’s incredible claim over almost the entire South China Sea.

Also at the event, former chief justice Artemio Panganiban called Carpio “the chief justice we never had,” while former foreign affairs chief Albert del Rosario described him as the “staunchest defender of our maritime rights and entitlements over the West Philippine Sea.” Del Rosario was also with the legal team that contested China’s nine-dash line before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

After the luncheon meet, Carpio told reporters he will “continue with research (and) lecture all over the country and abroad if I get to be invited.”

Carpio retires on Oct. 25 after 18 years of service in government.

In his remarks, Carpio said he has addressed backlog of cases for seven years and called on executive and judiciary officials to “invest in developing a culture of excellence.”

He said drug cases are still “not moving due to lack of prosecutors and PAO (Public Attorney’s Office) lawyers, which the executive department must address.” 

Carpio also called his coming retirement “very liberating” as it will give him more time to pursue his advocacy.

“I plan to continue with my advocacy on West Philippine Sea. That will be my main work and spend most of my time there. I will not do private practice anymore. I’d probably teach a subject every semester, but it will be mainly on the West Philippine Sea,” Carpio said in an interview over a social news network. 

“I feel it’s very liberating because I don’t have to read stacks of pleadings every day,” he added, when asked how he felt about leaving the SC.

Carpio said he is also considering gathering like-minded friends and organize a “think tank” that will promote the country’s position on the West Philippine Sea.

He vowed to pursue his advocacy more vigorously “despite all the odds” and “even if at first it looks like an unreachable star.”

“Like my advocacy on the West Philippine Sea, it looks like a moonshot, but I realized there is no other way… It taught me perseverance. It taught me that you should stick to your principles and people will respect you for that, and they will even follow you if you showed them the way,” he said.