CARPIO ASKS FOR ‘PEOPLETO-PEOPLE’ CAMPAIGN TO ASSERT UN RULING THAT FAVORED PH ON WEST PHILIPPINE SEA

Supreme Court Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio urged every Filipino to engage in “people to people” conversations to help persuade China to comply with the arbitral ruling that honored the Philippines’ sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea.

“I call this (our dispute over the South China Sea) the gravest external threat to the Philippines since World War 2,” Carpio said during the commencement ceremony of the University of San Carlos (USC) Law School.

“When I graduated from Law school in 1975, I thought about how our country could overcome the internal rebellions facing the country, then. Today, a new threat has emerged not internally but externally across the China Sea,” said Carpio. He encouraged the graduates to think about their duties in helping the country.

In 2016, a United Nations’ arbitral tribunal ruled that China had not historic claim to develop resources that fell within its so-called nine-dash line. “The countries that supported us in the arbitration could not demand that China comply with the ruling when the Philippine Government itself is not demanding compliance from China,” Carpio said.

China has chosen to ignore the 2016 arbitral ruling, and President Rodrigo Duterte has chosen not to assert it, citing warnings from China that doing so would escalate the conflict.

However, all concerned Filipinos can explain the ruling to other states that are bound by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Carpio said.

“Let’s not delay any longer and start this historic people-to-people conversation with other UNCLOS member-states and with China today,” he told the 84 law graduates.