Carpio warns PHL on waiving rights over disputed seas, losing resources to China

Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio on Wednesday warned the government not to waive the Philippines' sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the West Philippine Sea.

At a forum in Makati City marking the first anniversary of The Hague ruling favoring the Philippines' case against China over claims in the South China Sea, Carpio said that a foreign state could not acquire legal rights using unlawful means.

"Under international law we cannot lose our sovereign rights and jurisdiction due to unlawful actions of other states. Our rights will always be there as long as we do not waive them," Carpio said.

However, the Philippines may also lose its practical benefits of sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the West Philippine Sea should China successfully gain control of the resources in the disputed waters there and exhausts them, Carpio said.

"If China...physically controls the South China Sea and starts extracting the gas and fish and everything there, when they exhaust it that's the point of no return in terms of economic rights of sovereign rights and jurisdiction is concerned," Carpio said.

"We cannot recover anything anymore because China has stolen it," he added.

Collapse of natural resources

Maritime law expert Dr. Jay Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, also warned against the possible collapse of natural resources at the West Philippine Sea.

"If you are talking about the environment, the point of no return would be the collapse of the natural resources, particularly the coral reefs and the fisheries," he said.

"There is data indicating that we are approaching this point in the South China Sea," he added, saying that the area has been subject to scientific research already.

Batongbacal urged the government to engage in damage control in the area, which he described as "finite."

He said that China is using destructive fishing methods, endangering the sensitive resources there.

"Chinese fishing continues, and that includes destructive fishing methods...as late as March there are still sightings of coral extraction in Scarborough Shoal," he said. —NB/KVD, GMA News