Retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio warned today that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) will collapse if China continues to encroach on the exclusive economic zones of countries in the South China Sea, including the Philippines. “If China can seize the exclusive economic zones of five coastal states in the South China Sea that would mean UNCLOS will collapse,” Carpio said. “UNCLOS will no longer serve as the constitutional law for the oceans and seas of our planet and all other coastal states, the small coastal states, will be at the mercy of their bigger neighbors who will just seize their exclusive economic zone,” he added. If this happens, the retired magistrate lamented “everybody will try to acquire warships, missiles just to protect their maritime zones” and “funds needed for education and social services will be diverted to buying war machines.” “The world will be a terrible place to live in,” he said. Carpio advised the government to raise before the next UN General Assembly this month the legally binding July 2016 Arbitral ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Natherlands which did not recognize China’s nine-dash line territorial boundaries and told China to recognize the Philippine EEZ. “There are two things China can comply. China can voluntarily complying which we do not see happening and China is forced by world opinion to comply,” he said. Though the Philippines will have to lobby before the UN, Carpio said he “expect a lot of support.” “But I think at the very least we will have a majority on our side,” said the retired magistrate who was part of the high-level legal team which won the 2016 arbitration. Carpio said members of the G7 states, the European Union, United States, France, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, and India have publicly declared that China should comply with the Arbitral ruling. He said the government should also express support to the freedom of navigation drills being conducted by the US, UK, France, Japan, and India in the West Philippine Sea. “They are in fact enforcing the ruling for us. So we should welcome that and we have not welcomed the freedom of navigation operations of these countries,” he said.