Today marks the ninth anniversary of the arbitral decision on the West Philippine Sea.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruled in favor of the Philippines and against all other claimants, including China, that the area 200 miles from the country’s western baselines was part of the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone.

This gave the country the right to exploit the marine resources within the EEZ while taking care of the marine environment.

The case was filed in 2013 by the government of then President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino.  It was an effort to resolve a standoff in the Panatag or Scarborough Shoal in 2012-2013.  The two countries agreed to withdraw their ships, but China reneged, forcing the Philippines to turn to arbitration.

Unfortunately, the decision was handed down when former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte was the tenant in Malacañang.  Acting like a puppet of China, he chose to ignore it and even called it a mere scrap of paper fit for the wastebasket.

He never criticized China for its illegal seizure, militarization, and occupation of several features in the WPS, harassment of Filipino fishers and Coast Guard and Navy vessels, destruction of coral reefs, and stealing of fish in the EEZ.

While the UNCLOS PCA could only rule on sovereign rights in the EEZ, the truth is that the Philippines also has ownership of and sovereignty over the area.  The Treaty of Paris of 1898 and the supplemental Treaty of Washington of 1900 transferred to the US all that Spain held as Las Islas Filipinas.  This included Panatag and the Spratlys which were covered in the Velarde map of 1734.

Meanwhile, the maps of China through the various dynasties pinpointed the island of Hainan as its southernmost point.  It was only in 1946 that the “nine-dash line” in the South China Sea was invented by a Chinese cartographer — no metes and bounds, just a drawing of nine dashes on a map, with China adding a tenth dash to the east of Taiwan subsequently to justify its claims over that self-ruled island.

The Philippines has been acting properly in the WPS under President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and citizen groups have been protesting against China’s actuations.

• Government and private groups like Atin Ito encourage and provide supplies for Filipino fishers in WPS.
• The Philippines extracts natural gas from the Malampaya site and provisions have been made by Prime Energy for a Phase 4 drilling project which may extend the lifespan of the gas field.
• Coast Guard, Philippine Navy, and even Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) ships patrol the area.
• The Philippine Coast Guard, Navy, and Air Force are gradually building up their strength.
• The UP Marine Science Institute studies the potentials of the WPS features, the Philippine Rise (formerly called Benham Rise), and other marine resources.
• Former Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, Director Jay Batongbacal of the UP Institute of Maritime Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Rappler’s Editor-at-Large Marites Dañguilan-Vitug, PCG’s Grand Commodore Jay Tristan Tarriela, and Retired Rear Admiral Rommel Jude Ong have been outspoken in their defense of the Philippines’ sovereign rights in WPS.
• Some military camps now prominently display pictures of islands in the WPS in the lobbies of buildings, by way of emphasizing the responsibility of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to defend the country’s sovereignty and sovereign rights.
• The country has allowed the US to share nine Philippine military bases and station HIMARS and Typhon missile systems in some of these.
• Joint patrols and maritime drills with the US, Australia, Japan, and France have been conducted to assert the country’s sovereign rights in WPS and the rights of all nations to sail in international waters between the Southeast Asian countries’ EEZs.
• The illegal activities of Chinese vessels have been documented and hundreds of complaints have been filed.
• The Philippines continues to reach out to other countries to persuade them to support the country’s UNCLOS-based claims.
• Two party list organizations – Akbayan and ML (Mamamayang Liberal) – together with some members of the Liberal Party have created a WPS bloc in the House of Representatives and filed bills that would strengthen the country’s sovereign rights and responsibilities over its EEZ.

What more can be done?

• The country can encourage building larger fishing vessels equipped with fish-finding radar and more sophisticated communications systems and manned by a team of fishers rather than a solo fisher.
• BFAR can be upgraded to a Department of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs and include in its mandate research and development in the Philippines’ entire EEZ, not only the WPS but also the north, south and east portions., as well as archipelagic waters.
• Joint patrols and continued alliance work with other countries may create conditions that would make possible the exploitation of the estimated 5.4 billion barrels of oil and 55.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Recto or Reed Bank.
• Inasmuch as China’s aggression has not been limited to the South China Sea but also includes the East China Sea, the Philippines should seek cooperation with Taiwan, Japan and South Korea to defend mutual interests.
• The Philippines should consider drone technology, including the solar-powered drones being developed by Japan and the underwater drones created by Ukraine, which are likely to be more economical than expensive fighters, bombers, and submarines.
• All classrooms in schools throughout the country should display a map of the Philippines similar to the one shown above which clearly shows the country’s EEZ and indicates the West Philippine Sea and some of its features. Teachers should include lessons on sovereignty, the history of the Philippines’ territory, and the WPS in appropriate subjects.