Code of Conduct in South China Sea must cover Scarborough, be legally binding —Carpio

The Code of Conduct in the South China Sea among the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should cover the fishing grounds of Scarborough Shoal, Paracel islands and the Spratlys and must also be legally binding, acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio said Friday.

"The COC should include the Scarborough Shoal, the Paracels and Spratlys because China does not want them included," Carpio, a leading expert on the South China Sea issue, said in a forum.

The forum was held days after members of the Chinese coastguard prevented a GMA News team from making a documentary in Scarborough Shoal.

The ASEAN and China have a standing Declaration of Conduct in the South China Sea. Signed in 2002, it states that parties should “undertake to exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability including, among others, refraining from action of inhabiting on the presently uninhabited islands, reefs, shoals, cays, and other features and to handle their differences in a constructive manner."

The ASEAN-DOC, however, is a non-binding agreement.

Considering that the ASEAN-DOC does not impose sanctions for "provocative actions,” Carpio said the COC should be legally binding but should not "supplant" United Nations Convention of the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS), which allows claimant states to file cases before the UN Court of Arbitration and which provides that the 200 nautical miles off a territorial sea of the coastal state is the exclusive economic zone of the a state.

"The UNCLOS is the best settlement mechanism for maritime dispute," Carpio said. "We should not abandon it so we should watch out for that [under the new COC]."

In the same forum, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said that China's willingness to craft a COC with the ASEAN within three years is an "encouraging sign."

"The fact that they gave a timeline of three years is an encouraging sign that we are finally coming to a conclusion on this COC so we can control the behavior of those ships passing in and passing by," he added.

Carpio was one of the members of the Philippine delegation that successfully sued China before the United Permanent Court of Arbitration. In a July 2016 ruling, the Hague-based tribunal rejected China's nine-dash line assertion claiming the entire South China Sea. The same ruling also declared that the Panganiban (Mischief) Reef, Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal and Recto (Reed) Bank in the South China Sea are all within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.

The decision, however, identified Scarborough as a common fishing ground since it is composed or rocks that cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own.

The Paracel islands, on the other hand, is being claimed by China and Vietnam. —KBK, GMA News