Carpio for Chief Justice? Duterte says he has yet to decide

President Rodrigo Duterte has yet to decide whether to appoint Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio to the post of Chief Justice.

At a press conference in Malacañang, Duterte was asked if he would appoint the most senior magistrate to replace the just-retired Chief Justice Teresita De Castro.

"I will decide when I cross the bridge," Duterte said

Carpio and Duterte have been at odds over the government’s policy on protecting the country’s sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea.

Carpio wants the Duterte administration to push for the implementation of the July 2016 ruling of the Hague-based UN Permanent Court of Arbitration, which rejected China's entire claim of South China Sea and declared that the Spratly Islands, as well as the Panganiban (Mischief) Reef, Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal and Recto (Reed) Bank are all within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, which it calls the West Philippine Sea.

Carpio also wants the government to sue China for its intrusion of, and destroying marine life within, the West Philippine Sea.

Duterte, on the other hand, has set aside the Hague ruling, adopting a less confrontational stand against China and saying that he did not want to go to war with the other country.

Likewise, Duterte is in favor of a joint exploration in the West Philippine Sea with China—a policy that Carpio is staunchly against since it is not provided for under the 1987 Constitution and the July 2016 Hague ruling, among others.

Carpio was one of the members of the Philippine delegation which successfully sued China before the Hague, an unprecedented legal victory on the issue of territorial claims in South China Sea. — with a report by Llanesca T. Panti/NB/BM, GMA News