As government officials debate over the best way on how to deal with China’s expansion and harassment at the West Philippine Sea, retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio recommended government to start a campaign to win over members of the United Nations before asking them to vote against Chinese harassment in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) and to uphold the 2016 arbitral award in favor of the Philippines.
A Senate resolution reaffirming the country’s claim of sovereignty over the WPS before the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to put a “spotlight on China’s unlawful incursions,” has been filed and is being debated.
Carpio said “it’s too early” to bring the Philippine case to the UNGA in September, when it holds its annual meeting, as the country would most likely not get majority of the votes. However, “we should make the decision now, that this is our plan, and then we implement it and once we achieve the number of votes, that’s when we formally ask for a vote,” he added.
He said such a campaign would take some time since it will require sending envoys to other countries to negotiate and secure their support before the vote.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., on the other hand, is skeptical how such a resolution from lawmakers “would translate to any action that will reach the UNGA” to move its members to stop China from harassing Filipinos in the WPS.
Seeking a UNGA vote on the dispute between the Philippines and China was on the “menu of options” of the Department of Foreign Affairs, according to Foreign Undersecretary Antonio Morales during a recent forum. He said only 22 percent of UN member states have expressed support for the arbitral court ruling that invalidated China’s sweeping claims to nearly the entire South China Sea, which includes waters within our 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone.
However, there is still no clear decision or strategy from the current administration, even after 6 years of the previous dispensation’s strategy of ignoring the problem, hoping it will go away.
There are multiple options and strategies that the country could’ve and should’ve employed, ever since we secured the 2016 arbitral ruling in our favor. Our government’s inaction for 6 years certainly put us at a massive disadvantage against China, who certainly wasn’t idle in the WPS during that time. However, now that our government is deciding to finally take action, our leaders must consult with the experts in the field and explore all the available options before uniting behind a strategy, because our current method of facing the problem, which went from ignoring the problem to launching as many dissonant talking heads at it as we can, probably in a bid to confuse China, simply won’t cut it.*
