Take China to arbitration court once again, this time to make it accountable for the destruction of the environment in the west Philippine Sea.
That’s the suggestion of retired Supreme Court Justice Francis H. Jardeleza, who also served as Solicitor Genera during the Aquino III administration and assisted the Philippine government in our landmark South China Sea arbitration case against China.
Jardeleza believes President Marcos Jr. should initiate the filing of a follow-up arbitration case against China.
This would make our neighbor in our western flank responsible for the “unconscionable and irremediable damage it inflicted on the environment when it embarked on the large-scale reclamation of parts of the West Philippine Sea, including areas indisputably within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.”
The former jurist pointed out the 2016 arbitral award “shredded to pieces China’s hallucinations about its infamous nine-dash line.”
Moreover, the award or ruling clarified the extent of the country’s territorial waters that forms part of our Exclusive Economic Zone. And it declared none of the features of the South China Sea qualifies as an island.
Jardeleza asserts the arbitral award already pinpointed China’s responsibility and accountability for its large-scale degradation of the environment and marine resources.
It also held China directly responsible, as a state and a party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, for the damage to the environment.
It also found China engaged in “unlawful, artificial island-building in, among others, the Mischief Reef, which is indisputably within the Philippine EEZ.”
In sync with this view, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said last October the Philippine government is inclined to support the filing of an environmental case against China, and they would be working on this for possible filing by the end of the first quarter of 2024.
That deadline has passed, but we hope the DOJ can finish the job in the coming months.
We understand former Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio also fully supports the filing of such a case, so his legal expertise can also strengthen our position.
Jardeleza also proposes that to save on resources, the Office of the Solicitor General should be mandated to handle the new arbitration case, since it has lawyers who know their international law and have experience from the previous arbitration.
The government, he emphasized, should prepare the evidence carefully and start trial preparations at the soonest possible time.
This will entail costs, to be sure, but it would also require moving fast, as it takes about three years to produce a verdict on an arbitration case such as this.
Will the Marcos Jr. administration authorize the filing of this proposed environmental arbitration against China?
We’ll have to wait and see.