Carpio, Roque answer queries on fishing rights, territorial dispute in West Philippine Sea

Former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio and presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, who were supposed to have a public debate on the West Philippine Sea issue, responded to GMA News' questions regarding the contested territories.

In a report by Ivan Mayrina and Raffy Tima on "24 Oras," Carpio and Roque answered concerns on the value of the 2016 arbitral ruling, China's behavior on the territorial dispute, China's fishing rights, and events in the 2012 Scarborough Shoal standoff.

Specifically, GMA News asked the Palace official and President Rodrigo Duterte's critic about the following issues:

•     The Philippines considers the 2016 Arbitral Tribunal ruling on the West Philippine Sea a big win over China. What is its real value since China refuses to acknowledge it?
•     Can we influence China to change its behavior? Do we have any leverage or influence on China? And how can we utilize them to our advantage?
•     Who has possession of the West Philippine Sea?
•     In resolving the conflict in the West Philippine Sea, is the military option our only option?
•     What would be an acceptable settlement to the territorial dispute?
•     Can Chinese fishermen fish inside our exclusive economic zone in the WPS?
•     What lessons did we learn from the loss of Scarborough Shoal and Mischief Reef? How can we prevent this from happening again?

To recall, Duterte backed out from his debate with Carpio regarding the matters on West Philippine Sea. Roque then said he will represent the President in the square off with the retired high court justice.

Carpio, meanwhile, rejected Roque's proposal for the debate because of the topic that will be covered in the dispute. He said it is futile to debate on how Philippines lost Scarborough Shoal to China because there is no evidence to prove that China seized the island.—Consuelo Marquez/AOL, GMA News