Trigger for conflict
Owners of real estate have deeds or land titles to prove ownership. In the global neighborhood, there are international rules for setting national borders, delineating land and maritime territories or defining sovereign rights and economic entitlements.
For maritime domain, there is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. As of May last year, UNCLOS had 168 countries plus the European Union as parties. UNCLOS served as basis for a ruling in 2016 by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which the Philippines had sought to define its maritime entitlements in the South China Sea.
The arbitral court not only awarded the Philippines sovereign rights over Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal, Panganiban (Mischief Reef) and Recto (Reed) Bank, it also invalidated China’s so-called nine-dashline claim over nearly the entire South China Sea. The ruling also declared that Beijing had no right to prevent other countries from entering and fishing in Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal.
Both the Philippines and China are parties to UNCLOS, but Beijing refused to cooperate in the international arbitration. The Philippines has the arbitral court ruling to support its claims of sovereignty and maritime entitlements within its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea. Beijing has nothing in international rules to support its expansive maritime claim, so it can be considered an intruder and squatter within the Philippines’ EEZ. It has refused to vacate Panganiban Reef, which it has transformed into a militarized artificial island after initially building huts that it deceptively presented as fishermen’s shelters. Its construction of artificial islands across the Spratlys has destroyed the marine environment.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources has reported that China is pumping cyanide into Panatag to destroy the shoal, which it has tried cordoning off to keep away Filipino fishermen. Yesterday, China Coast Guard and militia ships blocked and collided with two PCG vessels on a resupply mission to the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin. The Chinese also fired water cannons at one of two civilian boats contracted for the resupply mission. Four crewmembers were injured as the windshield of the Unaizah May 4 shattered from the force of the water blast.
The latest bullying occurred as Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo told China, in an unusually strong statement, to “stop harassing us.” President Marcos, in Australia together with Manalo for a special summit with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, warned in an interview with Australian TV that a single mistake or misunderstanding could trigger “outright” conflict in the South China Sea.
Both countries continue to commit to peaceful settlement of the dispute, so armed conflict may still be avoided. What such incidents create is bad blood, and a black eye for those who refuse to play by international rules.