EDITORIAL - A new envoy

After appointing two special envoys to Beijing, President Aquino has picked a new nominee as the country’s ambassador to the world’s second largest economy. This time, he has selected a career diplomat, Sonia Brady, who held the same post from April 2006 to January 2010. She has a good chance of getting the nod of the Commission on Appointments, which bypassed the President’s previous nominee for the post several times.

Brady is certain to be knowledgeable about the intricacies of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which is the basis for the Philippines’ claim over certain reefs and islets in the West Philippine Sea. China is a signatory to the UNCLOS but invokes a vague historical claim to about 90 percent of the South China Sea, with a so-called nine-dash line that leaves five other claimants with little more than a few kilometers of coastal waters.

If confirmed by the CA, Brady will be going to Beijing amid a continuing dispute over Panatag or Scarborough Shoal, a traditional fishing ground of residents of Masinloc town in Zambales. Despite a summer fishing ban in the South China Sea announced by Beijing, dozens of paramilitary Chinese vessels are currently in the shoal, accompanying their supposedly small-scale fishermen in their activities in the Panatag lagoon. The standoff at the shoal started when Philippine authorities apprehended Chinese fishing boats full of baby sharks, giant clams and other endangered species.

Beijing has made noises about resolving the dispute peacefully through diplomatic channels. Apart from easing tensions over the shoal dispute, Brady will confront its consequences on trade, travel and tourism. Friendly and economic ties between the two countries go back several centuries, and many Filipinos trace their roots to China. Despite the territorial dispute, there is a deep well of goodwill that Brady can draw on to improve frayed bilateral ties. This she can do even as she emphasizes that in the community of nations, it’s not a case of might makes right, and international law should prevail.