The government should seek damages from China for its harassment and illegal actions in Philippine waters, former Solicitor General and Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza on Tuesday said.
Jardeleza also said the government can do this by filing a case backed by Manila’s previous arbitral ruling victory.
During the Kapihan sa Manila Hotel news forum, Jardeleza suggested to the government, through the Office of the Solicitor General (SolGen), to immediately initiate the filing of the case before the United Nations-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) while cases of harassment against Philippine personnel in the West Philippine Sea are still fresh.
“It must be done now,” the former chief state lawyer said, adding that it would warn China that the Philippines is on guard against every illegal action it is making in the West Philippine Sea.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. should be the one to decide on the filing of the new arbitration case being the country’s chief architect of foreign policy, Jardeleza said.
Jardeleza served as a solicitor general during the administration of former president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III when the Philippines filed an arbitration case against China before the PCA.
Jardeleza said some of the cases in which damages could be sought were the laser pointing incident, the water cannon attack and the dangerous maneuvers.
Newly confirmed Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Lt. Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. meanwhile said he sees last month’s quadrilateral naval exercises as the runup to regular and continuous joint patrols of these countries, and possibly with other allies as well.
The Philippines recently conducted naval exercises with the US, Australia and Japan in the South China Sea, amid China’s actions in the Indo-Pacific waters that flouted the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Asked by Commission on Appointments (CA) majority leader and Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte during the recent CA hearing on his ad interim appointment as AFP chief on whether he favors joint sails with country-allies to guard the WPS, Brawner replied: “We are very much in favor of having joint patrols and joint operations with our allies, partners and like-minded nations.”
In a related development, the Philippine Navy on Tuesday said it would christen and commission into service two US-donated Cyclone-class patrol vessels on September 11.
Navy spokesperson Captain Benjo Negranza said these ships will be known as the Alvarez-class patrol vessels once commissioned in service. The christening and commissioning rites would be held at PN headquarters at Naval Station Jose Andrada, Roxas Boulevard, Manila.
The US Navy transferred these two Cyclone-class patrol vessels upon decommissioning in Bahrain on March 28 and were delivered to the country last May.
The ships, the former USS Monsoon (PC-4) and USS Chinook (PC-9), were transferred to the PN through the Excess Defense Article (EDA) program.
The 55-meter vessels will be able to complement the PN’s patrol gunboats in ensuring safety and security within the “littoral waters of the porous borders and vast maritime environment of the Philippines, being equipped with the firepower and lethality for littoral operations.” With Maricel V. Cruz