Gov’t urged to file new case amid Sandy Cay claims
Retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on Monday urged President Marcos to authorize the filing of a new arbitration case over the Philippines’ extended continental shelf (ECS) beyond the Spratly Islands, amid recent contentions from Vietnam and China over Sandy Cay, a string of sandbars near Pag-asa Island within its 22-kilometer territorial sea.
Over the weekend, Hanoi protested claims by Beijing and Manila after the two countries traded barbs when Chinese state media reported that it had taken over the sandbars near Pag-asa (Thitu) Island in the West Philippine Sea—a claim later refuted by Philippine security officials.
According to Carpio, Vietnam and China are asserting claims over Sandy Cay because both claim sovereignty over the entire Spratly Islands, including Pag-asa.
The Philippines, Carpio said in an interview with ANC, is claiming only about 95 percent of the Spratlys, with Sandy Cay falling within the territorial sea of Pag-asa.
He cited a supposed informal agreement among claimant states in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to avoid encroaching on geologic features already occupied by other Southeast Asian countries, respecting each other’s control without dropping sovereignty claims.
But while Vietnam and Malaysia prefer to keep their maritime disputes with China “low profile” due to strong economic ties with the latter, Carpio said that the Philippines had been “the most vocal” in asserting its entitlements.
He said Mr. Marcos, nearly halfway through his term, should authorize a second arbitration case over the Philippines’ ECS beyond the Spratly Islands if he wanted to leave a lasting legacy on the West Philippine Sea issue.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) defines a continental shelf as the submerged extension of a coastal state’s land territory, covering the seabed and subsoil beyond its territorial sea, up to the edge of its 370-km (200-nautical-mile) exclusive economic zone.
“We have to file the claim now before … China becomes stronger and China might enter into agreements with the US that will prejudice us, so we have to file it now,” Carpio said.
Vietnam and Malaysia, he said, will be “happy” if the overlapping claims in the maritime area will be divided equally in accordance with the length of each country’s coastlines, which is the default resolution under Unclos.
“Vietnam and Malaysia won’t go first because of their strong economic relations with China. But if we file, they’ll welcome it,” he said.
Carpio also recommended that the Philippines take a bolder stance in resolving the territorial disputes in the South China Sea by challenging China, Vietnam and Malaysia to submit their claims to arbitration.
In 2016, the Philippines won a landmark arbitral case against China at the international arbitral tribunal in The Hague, which affirmed Manila’s maritime entitlements in the West Philippine Sea and invalidated Beijing’s sweeping nine-dash-line claim.
