Loss of West Philippine Sea territory is on Carpio, not Duterte –Roque

The loss of Philippine territory in the West Philippine Sea is on former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio, not President Rodrigo Duterte, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque claimed on Monday.

Roque explained that a 2011 Supreme Court ruling dismissed a petition he and others had filed against the administration of then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo over the supposed illegality of the 2009 Baselines law - a measure that Roque said decimated the country’s sea territories.

Roque argued that the 2009 Baselines law, passed during Arroyo's presidency to comply with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), reduced the country’s territorial sea from over 229,000 square miles to 34,600 square miles.

The 2011 Supreme Court’s decision against Roque and company—penned by then Justice Carpio—ruled that the Baselines law only allowed the Philippines and other UNCLOS party states to “delimit with precision the extent of their maritime zones and continental shelves" and it played “no role in the acquisition, enlargement or, as petitioners claim, diminution of territory.”

The High Court cited that traditional international law typology provides that states acquire (or conversely, lose) territory “through occupation, accretion, cession and prescription”, and “not by executing multilateral treaties on the regulations of sea-use rights or enacting statutes to comply with the treaty’s terms to delimit maritime zones and continental shelves.”

“Sa debate kung sino ang namigay ng teritoryo sa mga dayuhan, hindi po si Presidente Duterte. Sino ang nagsulat ng desisyon na nagsabing 'yung pagkawala ng internal waters, territorial sea ay sang-ayon sa Saligang Batas? Walang iba kundi si Senior Justice Antonio Carpio,” Roque said.

(On the debate on who gave away our territory, it wasn't President Duterte. It was Justice Carpio who wrote the decision that said that the loss of internal waters and territorial seas was constitutional.)

The Supreme Court, however, issues decisions as a collegial body and based on what is agreed upon by the majority of its members.

Roque went on the explain that he was not blaming Carpio but merely emphasizing that President Duterte was dealing with the consequences of the Supreme Court's ruling

“Di po tayo naninisi. Ang sinasabi lang natin, dahil nadatnan na yan ni Presidente. Ang desisyon niya ay unang-una, talagang ititigil na ba ang relasyon [ng Pilipinas] sa Tsina dahil sa hidwaang ito? O isasantabi ang di pwedeng mapagkasunduan at isusulong ang mapagkakasunduan tulad ng kalakalan at pamumuhunan,” Roque said.

(We are not blaming anybody. We are just saying that this is the situation the President has to deal with. Do we sever our ties with China over this or shelve the disagreements or push for what we are agreeable to like trade and investments?.)

“The President will pursue his bilateral relations with China doon sa mga bagay-bagay na pwedeng isulong at isasantabi ang mga hindi mareresolba sa ating lifetimes,” Roque added.

(The President will pursue bilateral relations with China on matters which can be resolved and shelve those that cannot be solved in our lifetimes.)

Carpio earlier blamed Duterte for unabated Chinese incursions in the Philippines’ EEZ, saying that the President’s verbal deal with China’s President Xi Jinping allowing China to fish within the Philippine EEZ emboldened China to launch repeated aggressions against Filipino fishermen—even sinking a Filipino fishing boat in June 2019.

Roque denied that there was ever such a verbal deal, even if President Duterte defended such deal during his 2019 State of the Nation Address.

In a July 2016 ruling, the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration already rejected China's claim of sovereignty over the entire South China Sea.

The same Hague court decision—which stemmed from a case filed by the Philippines against China in 2013 during President Benigno Aquino III's administration—also ruled that the Spratly Islands, Panganiban (Mischief) Reef, Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal, and Recto (Reed) Bank were within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.

Before the UN Court issued the ruling, then-presidential candidate and Davao city mayor Duterte said he would ride a jet ski and plant a Philippine flag on one of the West Philippine Sea islands, even at the risk of provoking China's ire. —DVM, GMA News