PH's options on maritime dispute with China up in forum
DAVAO CITY – Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio is expected to talk about the options that the country has to enforce on the decision of the international arbitral tribunal on the disputed territories in the West Philippine Sea in a forum here this week.
Carpio will be here on Friday to attend the forum dubbed as “The West Philippine Sea Dispute: Now We Won, What’s Next?” at the Ateneo de Davao University’s College of Law, according to Atty. Cecilia Jover-Angeles.
Some 500 students from different schools and other stakeholders are expected to join the forum, she said.
“He will discuss what options we have and he will explain what this dispute is all about. Now that the decision is out, he will explain, is there anything we can do to enforce the decision?” Angeles said.
She added that it is important to educate Filipinos on what appears to be one of the most important issues today involving a maritime dispute between an economic superpower such as China and a relatively small country that is the Philippines.
“We are happy that the Philippine position was upheld. People don’t realize it but this is a momentous victory for a small country. The decision (favoring the Philippines) is a big accomplishment in itself,” she said.
Last July 12, the international court struck down China’s historic nine-dash line claim that covers most of the South China Sea and encroaches even the Philippines’ 200mile exclusive economic zone.
“China’s claims to historic rights, or other sovereign rights or jurisdiction, with respect to the maritime areas of the South China Sea encompassed by the relevant part of the ‘nine-dash line’ are contrary to the Convention and without lawful effect to the extent that they exceed the geographic and substantive limits of China’s maritime entitlements under the Convention; and further declares that the Convention superseded any historic rights, or sovereign rights or jurisdiction, in excess of the limits imposed therein,” the court ruled.