Carpio: PH should 'challenge' China to submit Scarborough Shoal dispute to arbitration

Retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on Wednesday said the Philippine government must "challenge" China to submit the territorial dispute over the Scarborough Shoal to arbitration.

This came after the Chinese military said that a Philippine military ship “illegally entered” waters near Scarborough Shoal, which is located inside the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

“Their claim is really, really dubious. So what do we do now? We challenge China. Let’s go to an arbitral tribunal. Let the arbitral tribunal decide who has sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal,” Carpio told ANC television.

The Philippines also calls Scarborough Shoal as Bajo de Masinloc.

Should China refuse to bring the territorial dispute to court, Carpio said it is because “China knows… its claim is weak.”

“And we’ll tell the world. We’re ready to arbitrate. Let the ICJ, the official judicial organ of the United Nations, decide the case and we will abide by that decision. So the world will know we have the strongest claim,” he said.

“If China doesn’t agree then China knows it is weak, its title is weak, its claim is weak. So we’ll tell the world. We’ve challenged China to submit this to arbitration and China refuses. So their claim is weak because they know they will lose," Carpio added.

In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration concluded that China had no legal basis to claim historic rights to resources within the sea areas falling within the ‘nine-dash line.’

China, however, has said that it does not recognize the ruling.

When asked how the 2016 ruling will influence the new case, Carpio said different principles of international law will govern the territorial dispute.

“The arbitral tribunal is only talking of the maritime dispute. But that will also apply to the territorial dispute but these [are] two separate disputes governed by different laws. So we have to start a new case on the territorial dispute,” the former SC Justice said.

According to Carpio, the decision of the International Court of Justice will be final and unappealable, saying parties are “bound to comply.”

‘Panacot’

Meanwhile, Carpio stressed that Scarborough Shoal has been the territory of the Philippines since 1734, which it previously called “Panacot.”

“The official maps of the Philippine territory during the Spanish regime, starting from 1734, 1808, until 1875, that’s just a few years before the Parish Treaty of 1898, all show that Scarborough Shoal is part of Philippine territory,” Carpio stressed.

He said that China only claimed the Spratly and the other islands in the West Philippine Sea in 1947 when it published its 9-dash line map.

“Now that map shows a dot in the area of Scarborough Shoal, but there is no name. So China in 1947 did not even have a name for Scarborough Shoal. We had a name for Scarborough Shoal since 1734,” he said.

“China, In the 1915s, when it first gave a name to Scarborough Shoal, China called it… it’s a translation of Scarborough. So they did not have an original name,” he added.

Just recently, an Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)-contracted boat collided with a China Coast Guard vessel off Ayungin Shoal, also included in the Philippines’ EEZ.

China also claimed that it “intercepted the trespassing Philippine ship in accordance with the law,” adding that the Philippines is responsible for the collision due to China’s “indisputable sovereignty” over the waters.

The government is also eyeing to file an environmental case against China over concerns in the WPS by 2024. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News