Lorenzana backs legally binding Code of Conduct with China on West PHL Sea

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana is supporting a legally binding Code of Conduct between Southeast Asian Nations and China in the West Philippine Sea.

"It should be legally binding. The problem in West Philippine Sea is the danger of miscalculations, misrepresentations. If we have this Code of Conduct, then we have assurance that there will be no misunderstanding and miscalculation," Lorenzana said in an interview on Friday.

"I hope China fulfills that promise because China has been trying to delay this for the past six years already," Lorenzana added.

Lorenzana said that the time frame in finishing the COC would be three years.

Former Foreign Affairs Chief Alan Cayetano has said that the COC need not be legally binding, but Lorenzana insisted that a non-binding COC can only do so much. 

"In that case [of a non-binding deal], it would depend if the agreement will be followed by the people on the ground," Lorenzana said.

"What is important [here] is the troops on the ground...the navy ship, air force pilots, and all those people there should understand that the conduct is being covered by this COC. Kaya gusto ko next year dapat tapos na ito. We are not the only ones thinking about this. Vietnam, all those claimants will be involved in this also," Lorenzana added.

Last month, Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said that the COC between the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China should be legally binding and cover the fishing ground of Scarborough Shoal, Paracel islands and the Spratlys.

Carpio made the call during the same week that members of the Chinese coastguard prevented GMA News television reporter Jun Veneracion and his crew from filming the situation of and interviewing Filipino fishermen in Scarborough Shoal. This visit was just six months after the same news team caught the Chinese on camera in taking the prized fish catch of Filipino fishermen.

The ASEAN and China have a standing Declaration of Conduct in the South China Sea inked in 2002 which 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.

Carpio is one of the members of the Philippine delegation which successfully sued China before the United Permanent Court of Arbitration which  in July 2016 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 July 2016 UN Court decision, however, identified Scarborough as a common fishing ground since it is composed or rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own.

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