Cayetano not keen on legally binding code of conduct in disputed sea

Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano on Friday indicated that the Philippines at this point would not push for a legally binding code of conduct in the disputed South China Sea.

Cayetano admitted it would be difficult for the Association of South East Asian Nations and China, which have been aspiring for a code of conduct for nearly two decades, to agree to a legally binding document.

“Let’s start with it being binding. A gentleman’s agreement,” Cayetano said, indicating a shift in the country’s long-held position that the code must be legally binding.

Cayetano said “the word and commitment of countries” should be enough to make the accord binding.

“We are a community of nations, we all signed it,” he said. “I am telling you the practical reality of negotiations in international agreement.”

ASEAN and China have concluded this week a framework for a code of conduct – a set of guidelines that will shape negotiations for the document.

However, both sides declined to state that the code should be legally binding – a position long frowned upon by China, which asserts historical ownership of nearly 90 percent of the waters.

A regional code of conduct aims to prevent conflicting territorial claims in the vast potentially-oil rich region from erupting into violent confrontations or worse, an economically-devastating major conflict.

The South China Sea is a vital sea lane where oil and natural gas have been discovered in several areas.

Finalizing the code has acquired urgency due to series of confrontations between China and its smaller Southeast Asian neighbors with competing claims to the waters, like the Philippines and Vietnam. Other claimants are Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Efforts to finalize the pact have dragged on for years without any sign that such accord will ever be achieved.

In place of a legally-binding code, China and ASEAN, which groups the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos, settled for a mere declaration in 2002 that calls on claimants to exercise restraint and stop new occupation in the South China Sea.

Its non-binding nature and lack of provision to sanction misbehaving claimants, renders the accord useless against aggression.

“Definitely it should be binding,” Cayetano said.

“The question of legal, if it is legally binding, what court or tribunal can you go to if there is a misbehaving claimant and will that claimant respect that court? How do we resolve that? So we are all trying to avoid not only war but instability," he added.

In July 2016, an international court in The Hague, Netherlands invalidated China’s historical claim over the South China Sea, in a decision that angered Beijing.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who has sought Chinese trade and economic aid, has shelved long-running territorial disputes, including the arbitral tribunal case won by the Philippines.

While ignoring the ruling – an offshoot of a case filed by the Philippines in 2013 - China has beefed up presence in contested territories.

China was accused of militarizing the South China Sea after it was reported that it has installed missiles and radars on artificial islands it built on the waters. —NB, GMA News