Locsin: SCS ruling not negotiable, a win for the law-abiding

ON the fourth anniversary of the unanimous award by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the South China Sea case, rendered in favor of the Philippines, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. said on Sunday, “The award is nonnegotiable.”

In a statement, a copy of which was obtained by Businessmirror, Locsin said: “The Philippines, as a law-abiding, peaceloving and responsible member of the international community, reaffirms on this occasion its adherence to the award and its enforcement without any possibility of compromise or change.”

Locsin reiterated that the ruling is “a contribution of great significance and consequence to the peaceful settlement of disputes

in the South China Sea and to the peace and stability of the region at large.”

His statement and the anniversary of the landmark ruling come on the heels of renewed tension in the South China Sea, where China conducted from July 1 to 5 naval military drills in the waters of the Paracels archipelago claimed by Vietnam.

Locsin had issued an earlier videotaped statement on those drills, saying that while they do not impinge on Philippine territory, any infringement of subsequent Chinese activities would be dealt with the appropriate “response.”

The United States last week had its own show of force, sending ships on patrol in the area, sparking warnings from Beijing.

Pursued within the framework of the Unclos (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea)— universally recognized as the constitution for the world’s oceans— “the arbitration award conclusively settled the issue of historic rights and maritime entitlements in the South China Sea,” the DFA chief said Sunday.

Locsin said as a reaffirmation of Unclos, and by laying down an authoritative interpretation of key Unclos provisions, “the award is a milestone in the corpus of international law, the cornerstone of a rules-based regional and international order.”

The Harvard-trained lawyer recalled that the Tribunal authoritatively ruled that China’s claim of historic rights to resources within the sea areas falling within the “nine-dash line” “had no basis in law.”

He said the ruling made it clear that, “Claims to historic rights, or other sovereign rights or jurisdiction that exceed the geographic and substantive limits of maritime entitlements under Unclos, are without legal effect.”

On maritime entitlements generated by features in the South China Sea, “the Tribunal conclusively ruled that none of the features in the Spratly Islands is capable of generating extended maritime zones and that the Spratly Islands cannot generate maritime zones collectively as a unit,” he added.

Locsin said the Tribunal also found that the Philippines could declare certain sea areas part of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as these areas do not overlap with any possible entitlement claimed by China.

“The Tribunal ruled that certain actions within the Philippines’s EEZ violated the Philippines’s sovereign rights and were thus unlawful; that large-scale reclamation and construction of artificial islands caused severe environmental harm in violation of international conventions; that the large-scale harvesting of endangered marine species damaged the marine ecosystem; and that actions taken since the commencement of the arbitration had aggravated the disputes,” Locsin pointed out.

“The arbitral tribunal’s award of July 12, 2016, represents a victory, not just for the Philippines, but for the entire community of consistently law-abiding nations.” Locsin added.