Carpio plans expedition to blockaded Sandy Cay

Tomorrow, Supreme Court Senior Justice Antonio Carpio’s 70th birthday, is “liberation”, he says. Officially retired and thus freed of daily judicial caseload, he can devote more time for his advocacies. Foremost is the defense of Filipino maritime rights and entitlements in our West Philippine Sea.

Carpio helped craft our 2016 UN arbitral victory against Chinese incursions. Beijing has defied the UN court ruling. It goes on bandying a baseless, outlawed “nine-dash” boundary as if the entire South China Sea, including our WPS, were its inner lake. It illegally occupies Scarborough Shoal, within our 200-mile EEZ but beyond China’s, to the exclusion of Filipino fisher folk. It destructively poaches in Scarborough and our Reed Bank, ramming and menacing Filipino fishing and exploration boats. It builds up militarily, even with missile, seven reefs it illegally concreted, threatening regional security and world trade. It dispatches naval militia vessels in waters around our new Sandy Cay off Pagasa Island, preventing Filipinos from setting foot there. In all those Carpio has exposed Beijing’s violations of our sovereign rights, and proposed strong yet peaceful diplomatic responses.

For months now Carpio has been contemplating an expedition to Sandy Cay that Chinese militia are blockading. The sandbar two miles from our Pagasa grew into a permanent surface protrusion in 2014. That was when Beijing dredged a farther reef into an island-fortress, and drifting pulverized corals piled up on Sandy Cay. Within 12 miles of Pagasa territorial waters, the new isle is ours under international law. Pagasa is part of Kalayaan town in Palawan. There reside the mayor, municipal councilors, barangay officials, hundreds of fishermen, goatherds, scientists, traders, and their school-age children. Filipinos are free to travel there, as they constitutionally are anywhere in our archipelago, Carpio says. That includes Sandy Cay.

In retirement Carpio aims to lecture as often as invited on sea law. That naturally would touch on Beijing’s invented history, exposed in his researches of ancient maps and documents. Invitations are pouring in for him to speak in domestic and international forums. A venue could be Sandy Cay, around which attendees can witness China’s militia swarms.

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TALKBACK. Readers react to my recent articles on the Metro Manila subway:

Basilio de Ocampo, Silang, Cavite: “DOTr says a review of the subway alignment to FTI-Taguig will only delay it. Yet DOTr’s very rerouting from the original EDSA feasibility studies in 2013-2016 already fudged it. Expect more delays when homeowners who will be evicted go to court. That the subway would traverse an earthquake fault and flood lines and cost six times the country’s yearly transport budget necessitate a second look. Who approved this anyway?”

Atty. Alvin Jules Romero, Parañaque: “Thank you for bringing to light the execrable manner the subway project is being handled in our United Hills and surrounding villages. Homeowners appreciate your work. I used to initiate the posting of your articles in Viber chat groups; now my neighbors beat me to it. The world needs more men like you who fight for the disadvantaged. Attached are photos of survey markings by DOTr consultants on the lot perimeter of the Church of the Nazarene, denoting it as a subway right-of-way.”

“Name withheld: “What, partially operating the first three stations is unfeasible! That goes to show that DOTr did not do proper engineering homework to undertake such gargantuan project that will cost us taxpayers a whopping P357 billion. A one-percent commission on it would be close to P4 billion from the willing contractor. It’s all about money.”

Toti Chikiamco, economist, author: “Saw your column about the unworkable partial operation of the Japanese subway. Keep on exposing the incompetent and corrupt in government.”

L. Macatangay, Libis, Quezon City: “The 16-year-old LRT-1, under DOTr, has no disaster-recovery plan, revealed during its total shutdown due to lightning strike in one station. What more a subway 50 meters, or 20 stories, underground? Pity the riders.”

Artemio Gokim: “Going by the subway alignment, the oligarch mall owner will benefit, not the ‘masa’.”

Name withheld, Corinthian Gardens, QC: “They took aerial images of our residences, then said we’d be in the subway route. Is that legal? Shouldn’t there be a public hearing first?”

Salavacion M., Pasig: “Due to the high cost and disaster risk, the next President will dump the subway project. It will go to waste with only three unnecessary operational stations.”

Ernie del Rosario: “Watch those right-of-way expropriations. As I’ve written you before, there are rackets in land acquisitions by crooked officials.” 

Patrick Salazar, Parañaque: “Your articles are on point and relevant. We always share them among the more than 300 homeowners. We also discuss your radio interviews.”

Mithor Singson, chairman, Barangay San Martin de Porres, Parañaque: “Thank you for airing our plight to the public.”

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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

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