Get China out of UNCLOS?

There is something terribly wrong in the messaging. If the end goal is to confuse the enemy, this could perhaps be the best excuse for the mixed signals on how concerned authorities digress from the official government line. In particular, public statements are coming out from all over the place in the overlapping maritime claims at the West Philippine Sea (WPS) and the South China Sea (SCS).    

At a press conference at the Malacañang Palace last Aug. 20, the newly created National Maritime Council (NMC) announced the government is aiming for a “unified messaging” on WPS issues. To perform this specific job, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) named retired Navy vice admiral and former energy undersecretary Alexander Lopez as the official spokesman of the NMC.

 PBBM created the NMC under Executive Order (EO) No. 57 signed last March 25. Among the “Whereas” clauses of EO 57, it declared: “The Philippines, as an archipelagic State, exercises sovereignty, jurisdiction and sovereign rights over its maritime zones in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and Republic Act (RA) No. 9522 or the Philippine Baselines Law.”

The NMC, chaired by Executive Secretary (ES) Lucas Bersamin, is principally tasked “to formulate policies and strategies to ensure a unified, coordinated and effective governance framework for the country’s maritime security and domain awareness” among Filipinos. 

Attached under the NMC is the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS) chaired by the National Security Adviser (NSA) Secretary Eduardo Año. Created by Memorandum Circular 94 dated March 17, 2016, the NTF-WPS was mandated to orchestrate and synchronize the capabilities and efforts of the different government agencies to achieve the national objectives in the WPS. Memo Circular 94 was issued during the term of the late president Benigno Simeon Aquino III. 

Four months later, the Permanent Arbitral Court (PCA) upheld the Philippine petition on our 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) claims at the WPS and voided China’s nine-dash line claims over the entire SCS. The Aquino administration brought our WPS claims before the PCA tribunal in 2013. The PCA is composed of 121 member-states that included signatory countries to the UNCLOS. Despite being an UNCLOS signatory like the Philippines, China refused to participate in the PCA proceedings in our WPS petition.

Then freshly installed into office at Malacañang Palace on June 30, 2016, former president Rodrigo Duterte chose not to stir up Beijing’s furious rejection of the PCA ruling and insistence that it was non-binding on China. Even with his pro-China policy, ex-president Duterte continued though with the NTF-WPS. Ignoring the PCA ruling on the WPS, Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) vessels encircled our rich fishing grounds in the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in Bajo de Masinloc, at the Ayungin and Escoda Shoals and other areas within our 200-mile EEZ.

CCG, led by its “monster ship,” persists in harassment and dangerous bullying maneuvers upon our puny Coast Guard vessels, including research ships of our Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.  

Thankfully, Philippine Coast Guard Commodore Jay Tarriela – as NTF-WPS official spokesman – is unrelenting in the “word war” to defend our sovereign rights over WPS. But with EO 57, all members of this inter-agency body under the NMC, including the NTF-WPS, must speak with one voice on any and all matters pertaining to the WPS.

Our elected leaders of the country, including the members of Congress, are not bound though by this executive fiat.

As a treaty-ratifying body, Senate President Francis Escudero has suggested the Philippine government should embed in our country’s laws of the land the July 2016 PCA ruling on the WPS. During our Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday, Escudero disclosed he has personally asked Solicitor General (Sol-Gen) Menardo Guevarra to study the possibility of seeking a declaration by the Supreme Court (SC) that the PCA ruling is already a part of Philippine laws. In this way, Escudero pointed out, the future presidents of the Republic will be mandated to uphold it.

Guevarra, however, believes the SC cannot render a ruling on an issue that is “clearly political in nature” such as the WPS. “It is best to leave it to the political branches of the government: Congress and/or the President. For a more stable and permanent policy, it should come from Congress,” Guevarra countered.

Guevarra argued the 19th Congress can already, in fact, incorporate the PCA ruling while the Maritime Zones bill and the Archipelagic Sealanes bill that the Senate and the House of Representatives, respectively, are still going through, followed by the bicameral conference committee. “Ultimately, the preservation of the 2016 Arbitral Ruling lies in the hands of the sovereign people,” Guevarra stressed. 

Methinks, too, it’s about time our officials get their acts together. Take the cue from what PBBM told Marcin Czepelak, PCA secretary general who visited him at the Palace last Thursday. “The Permanent Court of Arbitration is an important part of our foreign policy, considering all the challenges that we are facing right now, and our continuing adherence to international law,” the Chief Executive declared. 

As correctly noted by Escudero, PBBM is the country’s constitutionally-designated chief foreign policy architect while the Senate concurs only with treaty ratification. Meanwhile, Escudero revealed the Senate has yet to receive the transmittal of instruments of ratification for the Philippine-Japan Reciprocal Access Agreement signed last July 8 at Malacañang where PBBM stood as witness.

But irony of all ironies, the Senate chief noted, a third party – in particular the United States which is not even a signatory of UNCLOS – is in the middle of the WPS dispute. Not by choice, if I may add. Bound by its “iron-clad” commitments under the Mutual Defense Treaty, the US though must go through its own Congress to respond to external aggressions against the Philippines.

Beijing is undeterred though by the repeated calling out by the US, Japan, Australia and the other 169 member-states of UNCLOS. Despite Beijing’s flagrant defiance of the PCA ruling, China is not getting out of the UNCLOS anytime soon – for the trillion dollars’ worth of resources at the SCS.