Carpio: PHL can validly disallow China from conducting marine science research in Benham Rise

The Philippines can "validly" disallow China from carrying out marine scientific research in parts of Benham Rise due to the Asian giant's noncompliance with an international tribunal's ruling, said Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on Tuesday.

"Under UNCLOS, the Philippines can validly disallow China from conducting Marine Scientific Research in our extended continental shelf in Benham Rise because China has refused to comply with the arbitral ruling of a tribunal created under UNCLOS," said Carpio in a statement.

He was referring to the United Nations Conventions on the Law of the Sea, and reacting to the statement of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol which claimed President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered a stop to foreign scientific explorations in the resource-rich region.

The Philippines in 2016 won its case before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in the Netherlands, which ruled that China had no legal basis "to claim  historic rights to resources within the sea areas falling within the ‘nine-dash line.’"

China, which claims nearly all of the South China Sea, did not heed the United Nations tribunal's decision.

On the other hand, Carpio said the Philippines "has no valid ground to disallow other member states of UNCLOS, and will be violating UNCLOS if it disallows other states."

On Tuesday, Piñol took to Facebook to announce that Duterte had said in a Cabinet meeting on Monday that "only Filipino scientists will be allowed to conduct researches and exploration" in Benham Rise, which the President had renamed to Philippine Rise in May last year.

The Institute of Oceanology of Chinese Academy of Sciences (IO-CAS) has earlier been allowed to explore to survey the Philippines' northeastern seaboard, an area which includes Benham Rise, provided they will be joined by Filipino scientists.

A team from the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute joined the Chinese group, and the UP MSI's director Fernando Siringan told GMA News Online the Filipinos will participate in the "acquisition of data and deployment of monitoring equipment along the 8 degrees North latitude."

The Chinese study purportedly aims to study climate-driving ocean currents, but a maritime law expert has floated the notion that data gathered from scientific expeditions may be used for military purposes as well. —KG, GMA News