SUPREME Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has raised alarm signals that China is attempting to reframe the South China Sea dispute between Beijing and Washington, only three days before President Rodrigo Duterte flies to Beijing for a state visit.
The 66-year-old Carpio, born in Davao like the incumbent President, warned the chief executive China might ask the Philippines to concede the latter’s rights in the South China, upheld in July by an international arbitral tribunal, before agreeing on any exploration deals in the disputed maritime area.
Citing the increased Chinese encroachment in disputed waters just to affirm their nine-dash line claims despite the adverse Hague-based tribunal ruling, Carpio warned against what he described as the true enemy in the South China Sea.
“China is trying to reframe the dispute by saying it’s a battle between US and China. No, it’s between the Philippines and China,” Carpio told a media forum in Makati on Friday.
In his five-day trip to Hong Kong last August, former President and Special Envoy to China Fidel V. Ramos met with Professor Wu Schicun, president of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, who stressed that making the resource-rich Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea open to fishermen from both Beijing and Manila could help reduce the growing bilateral tensions caused by the maritime territorial dispute.
But Wu said before any joint exploration should take place, the Philippines should first acknowledge Beijing’s dominion over the Shoal.
“There are various cooperation plans the two countries can discuss. Fish-farming technology is not advanced in the Philippines, and China can help with that,” Wu added.
According to Wu, Ramos’ five-day trip to Hong Kong for negotiations with Chinese government officials could help reduce the rising tension in the region.
Ramos, whom Duterte credits for helping him win the presidency in the May 9 elections, said the government was “losing badly” by prioritizing a war on drugs at the expense of issues such as poverty, living costs, foreign investment and jobs calling it a “huge disappointment and letdown.”
Sources earlier revealed to Manila Standard that Duterte canceled Ramos’ China trip after he advised the incumbent President not to push through with the trip to China if they do not comply with certain conditions.
Instead of heeding Ramos’ advice, sources said Duterte canceled Ramos’ China trip and personally took control of talks with Chinese officials without even consulting or informing concerned Philippine counterparts.
Carpio warned Duterte, who will be making a four-day state visit to Beijing starting Oct. 18, that China might ask the Philippines to “concede” its rights over the South China Sea before agreeing on any exploration in the South China Sea or bilateral trade deals.
“If we first concede that they own it, we will share with the bounty, 50-50. And President Duterte will go there, and the Chinese will have the same condition,” Carpio said, reminding the President this has always been China’s position since then-President Benigno Aquino III infuriated Beijing by filing an arbitral case.
“So when the President comes back and say that we have signed all these agreements, we want to know what are the terms,” he added.
Carpio reiterated his opposition to Duterte’s decision to stop joint-patrols with the United States, saying only the US can counter China’s continued encroachment among disputed waters and continued patrols is the only way to protect the country’s EEZ. Or exclusive economic zone.
“The only way to protect our country’s EEZ is to be there where the poaching is because there is no way to stop it,” Carpio said.
“There’s only one power which can prevent China from making the nine-dash line its national boundaries. They’re encroaching on 80 percent of the country’s EEZ,” he added.
Chinese State-run newspapers with links to the Communist party have claimed China is not afraid of fighting a war against the United States in the South China Sea, as they attempt to build infrastructures on artificial islands in the region.
Shortly after Washington deployed a warship in the disputed waters, the notoriously nationalistic Global Times accused the Pentagon of provoking China and challenging their territorial claims in the region.
“In [the] face of the US harassment, Beijing should deal with Washington tactfully and prepare for the worst,” the newspaper argued in an editorial on Wednesday.
“This can convince the White House that China, despite its unwillingness, is not frightened to fight a war with the US in the region, and is determined to safeguard its national interests and dignity.”
In the same forum, Carpio said the Philippines must assert its claim over its EEZ now more than ever, as it has to begin looking for a substitute to the Malampaya gas field, which supplies 40 percent of Luzon’s energy, and will run out of gas in 10 years.
“We will have rotating brownouts in Luzon if we don’t develop a replacement area, a substitute area, and that substitute area is really the Reed Bank,” he said.
Carpio added it would take about six years to put the infrastructure in place, and the government has only a 10-year window before the Philippines’ largest operating gas field is spent.
China’s actions in the region are a threat to the marine environment and food security, the senior associate justice warned.
President Duterte will be flying to Beijing on a high-profile state visit along with more than 200 Filipino businessmen, expecting billions in investments and aid from the giant Asian neighbor that Manila sued before the UN arbitral court three years ago.