Del Rosario backs Carpio on Itu Aba issue's role in Philippines' arbitral win over China

Former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario on Thursday backed retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on the importance of the issue of the Itu Aba in the South China Sea arbitration.

In a statement, Del Rosario said they did their best to "guard against efforts to suppress" the issue of Itu Aba during the pendency of the arbitration.

Doing away with the Itu Aba issue, Del Rosario said, would have undermined the Philippines' case against China, which has insisted on its supposed historical claim over nearly the entire South China Sea.

"We also confirm the observations of the Philippine lead counsel, Paul Reichler, and Justice Carpio that former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay's 'statement that the lawyers wanted to discuss joint development in our response to the Tribunal's questions about Itu Aba is a complete fabrication,'" Del Rosario added.

He said they were personally present during the meeting in November 2015 in The Hague where Hilbay issued the instruction not to answer any of the Tribunal's questions on the status of Itu Iba.

"As Secretary of Foreign Affairs, we had to take a strong position to rescind this instruction that is detrimental to the Philippine case in the South China Sea arbitration," Del Rosario said.

Earlier, Hilbay slammed Carpio for claiming that there were factions between advisers of former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III in the 2013 arbitration case against China, which led to the landmark victory for the Philippines.

In a five-page response to Carpio’s Philippine Daily Inquirer column, Hilbay said he read the former SC justice’s piece with “amusement” and “disappointment” as he pointed out the “falsehoods” and “inaccuracies” in the former magistrate’s claims.

In his column, Carpio bared there was one faction against the arbitration case and one in favor of it.

But Hilbay said Carpio was merely an “observer” and had “no skin in the game” as far as the arbitration case is concerned.

Hilbay also took the opportunity to clarify the issue about Itu Alba, the largest naturally occurring feature in the disputed Spratly Group of Islands, over which - still according to Carpio - the alleged two factions in the Philippine arbitration team “fought again.”

Hilbay claimed that the Itu Albu issue was merely a “proxy” for the debate over joint development with China as a compromise should the Philippines lose the Itu Alba issue. -MDM, GMA News