Carpio to ‘continue defending’ West PHL Sea after retirement

Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on Friday said he will continue defending the West Philippine Sea even after his retirement from the Supreme Court (SC) next week.

Carpio will step down from the SC after 18 years as an associate justice on October 26, his 70th birthday.

"Like my partner Secretary Albert (Del Rosario), I too will continue defending the West Philippine Sea," the senior magistrate said in a testimonial lunch held in his honor by the Makati Business Club.

"In fact, when I retire I will devote most of my time defending our sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea," he said. He later told reporters he will continue researching, writing, and lecturing, and will "meet regularly" with friends he said were studying the same subject.

He said would "willingly and gladly" give his opinion and recommendation if sought by the government. "I'm always available to defend our sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea; I don't have to have any formal position."

Carpio has repeatedly spoken in defense of the Philippines' maritime entitlements, often cautioning the government about its handling of China's actions in the West Philippine Sea.

He was one of the legal luminaries behind the Philippines' case against China before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the international tribunal that found "no legal basis" for China's historic rights to resources within its so-called "nine-dash line" in 2016.

Carpio said last year that it was "beside the point" that his personal advocacy could cost him an appointment as chief justice, a post he had never occupied except in an acting capacity.

"What is more important for the nation is that we preserve our sovereignty and sovereign rights because if we lose this, we lose that forever," he said.

"That's far more important that any position. That's far more important that the presidency. I mean, the President can come and go, but our sovereignty should remain forever with us."

Formerly then-president Fidel Ramos' chief legal counsel, Carpio was appointed to the SC by former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2001. After 18 years, he said he is retiring with a zero case backlog -- achieved, he said, through "plain hard work" and "a mindset for excellence in one's work."

And although he never became chief justice, he will have the retirement privileges of one, according to retired chief justice Artemio Panganiban, who said Friday that the SC has unanimously passed a resolution for the purpose.

Carpio said he might miss the "constant intellectual battle" in the SC. "But we have a bigger foe, we have China. So I think that will consume my time and I don't think I will be longing to do other things," he said.

Known for extensively discussing the Philippine claim in the West Philippine Sea in his public lectures and speeches, Carpio was the one who wrote the Supreme Court decision that unanimously affirmed the constitutionality of the Philippine Archipelagic Baselines law of 2009.

The Baselines Law was passed to beat the deadline of the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS). Under the UNCLOS, a country's 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is determined to extend outward from that country's baselines. — MDM, GMA News