If
If men are supposedly created equal, there is also this international law principle of sovereign equality. While they operate upon different paradigms of man and nation, the essence of parity is common. The equality referred to in the latter principle is usually called “sovereign equality” meaning all states are equally entitled to have whatever they possess upheld by law no matter their differences in territorial sizes, population, power, or wealth. Theoretically speaking, the weakness of one state is no excuse in law for disregarding its legal rights.
It was this principle of sovereign equality that the Philippine leadership under former President Noynoy Aquino, sought from the International Arbitral Tribunal a ruling on which country has Exclusive Economic Jurisdiction over the islands dotting the West Philippine Sea. To us, the expansionist policy of China, as contained in the 93-1 line it arbitrarily drew for its own selfish interest, had no legal basis. In invoking our territorial rights over these islands as a sovereign state, we were neither cowed by the Chinese military might nor threatened by its seemingly unbearable economic influence over our affairs. After all, we did not confront China militarily or financially. And so the tribunal ruled in our favor.
The late senator Jovito Salonga commented, in his book “Public International Law” on the right of a state to existence and self-determination. While he said the “most elementary of all rights and undoubtedly the most important is the right of a State to exist and take such measures as are necessary to preserve it” he further said “the history of international relations shows that in the name of self-preservation, violations have been repeatedly committed upon the territorial integrity and independence of weak states.” Salonga might have as well referred to our country as the weak state in this embarrassingly inequitable Philippine-China relationship.
The leadership of our chink-eyed neighbors knew that the tribunal’s ruling was but a useless piece of paper without a sufficient military to back it up. As Salonga hinted, the Philippines had no enough force to make it stick. China thus encroached into our territory and completely made a mockery of the decision. It built military bases on these islands to show its contempt of Philippine territorial integrity.
To make our situation pathetic, the administration of President Duterte took no effort to uphold the international ruling. In refusing to do so it totally laid to waste the valiant efforts of his predecessor. The Philippines literally slept on its right. Instead of bringing the imperialistic incursion of this superpower into our domain to the attention of worldwide forum and in the process assert our territorial integrity, Duterte made pronouncements that encouraged the Chinese to rape our land and violate our rights.
The act of China in militarizing portions of our territory is not only a brazen disregard of our sovereignty. In addition to the insult thrown at us, (and this is worse) China is poised to disrupt international maritime commerce. We are told that the West Philippine Sea is the main avenue of transnational trade. Military experts express the incontrovertible fact that with its naval and air force assets controlling the sea lanes, China can dictate who may pass through. If only Duterte raised our national concern after China started occupying our islands, this dreaded apprehension could have been aborted. If only...
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