Carpio: Ayungin Shoal deal with China should be ended soon
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Former Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on Wednesday said the provisional understanding between the Philippines and China for Ayungin Shoal should be ended soon and not expanded to other West Philippine Sea (WPS) features.
“You cannot expand this. This is unique. This should be temporary. And they should end it as soon as we can,” Caprio said in a forum.
“I can see what China will do now. ‘Let us expand this agreement to the entire WPS’ because we have agreed to it. No we cannot because otherwise, we will be giving up our sovereign rights,” he added.
Carpio was part of the Philippine delegation in the 2013 arbitration case against China, which led to the landmark victory for Manila in 2016.
For Carpio, the Philippines does not need to inform China whenever it is conducting a rotation and resupply (RoRe) mission to the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal considering the feature is within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
“I'm worried that this particular preliminary agreement will be taken by China to win that they have some sort of control over our RoRe. They do not have,” he said.
“We don't need consent. We do not need to inform them whenever we go to Ayungin Shoal because it's our EEZ. And in EEZ, all the nations of the world have the freedom of navigation. We can go there anytime,” he added.
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The BRP Sierra Madre is an old landing ship the Philippine Navy deliberately grounded in Ayungin Shoal to serve as an outpost and a symbol of the country’s claims in the disputed area.
In an ambush interview, National Security Council (NSC) Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya clarified that the Philippines does not ask for permission from China during RoRe missions.
“We don’t get their permission. We don’t allow them to board our ships to do inspection, kahit visual inspection. And there is no supervision,” Malaya said.
“We don’t get permission. We just have a notification system with them na parang itong sa araw na ‘to magre-resupply kami, so huwag kayong manggugulo kasi magre-resupply kami,” he added.
(We don't get permission. We just have a notification system with them like on this day we will resupply, so don't interfere.)
According to Malaya, the provisional understanding in Ayungin Shoal will not be expanded to other WPS features.
“We are not gonna do that. As mentioned, itong arrangement na ito is only for Ayungin. It does not apply to other parts of the West Philippine Sea,” he added.
On January 16, the Philippines and China agreed to an indefinite implementation of the arrangement in Ayungin Shoal.
Signed in July 2024, the provisional agreement seeks to avoid altercations and ease tensions after a violent confrontation on June 17, 2024 at the Philippine-occupied area.
"The two sides exchanged views on the Provisional Understanding on the Philippines' rotation and reprovisioning (RORE) missions to BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, acknowledged its positive outcomes, and agreed to continue its implementation to sustain the de-escalation of tensions without prejudice to respective national positions," the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said. —RF, GMA Integrated News
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