Archive - South China Sea

“Making wars means making maps,” the Thai scholar Thongchai Winichakul wrote in his landmark Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation (1994).

True to a Biblical reference on the wise man who built his house on a rock, BRP Sierra Madre stands defiantly on Ayungin Shoal in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) even as one of Asia Pacific’s top military superpowers has been trying to have it removed for almost 30 years now.

As the South Chinese Sea dispute continues to heat up, former associate justice Antonio Carpio has recommended that the Philippines submit the conflicting claims in the Spratly Islands to voluntary arbitration in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. contradicted the assertions of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea that the 2016 arbitral court decision had declared the area as part of the Philippine exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.

Retired associate justice Antonio Carpio said the “national territory” clause is in Article I of the Constitution, while “the SC based its decision on the JMSU case on Section 2 of Article XII – these are two different articles in the Constitution.”

Can the U.S. invoke MDT if its vessel is attacked while aiding Taiwan vs China?Retired Justice Antonio Carpio: No

It was short and clear. And combative.

On October 13, 1995, state parties meeting in Vienna, Austria agreed on what is known as the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons. Since it was a treaty and which by United Nations procedure meant that each country would deposit its individual country consent at the UN headquarters in New York, the new protocol entered into force on July 30, 1998. As of 2018, 109 countries have deposited their consent.

The assurance of U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III on Feb. 2 that the Mutual Defense Treaty is applicable on the West Philippine Sea will be tested in Ayungin Shoal as Chinese ships become more determined to block any more attempts by the Philippine Navy to repair the dilapidated BRP Sierra Madre, which is holding out as a block to China’s expansionism in the South China Sea.

Ayungin Shoal, internationally known as Second Thomas Shoal and called Ren’ai Reef by China, is part of the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and continental shelf of the Philippines, according to the July 12, 2016 decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

The Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional today a 2005 agreement on joint exploration by the Philippines, China, and Vietnam of an area in the disputed South China Sea.

As leader of the nation, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. must place the defense of Philippine territory against foreign intrusion at the forefront of his administration to make it a top national concern by the public who are more worried about high prices, low wages, and unemployment.