Eleven senators have signed a Senate resolution condemning the illegal activities of China in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and other parts of the West Philippine Sea.
The senators said China’s incursions in the West Philippine Sea are clearly in violation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 2016 award by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in favor of the Philippines.
Senators who signed Senate Resolution No. 708 are Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Nancy Binay, Leila de Lima, Richard Gordon, Risa Hontiveros, Manuel “Lito” Lapid, Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, Grace Poe, Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr. and Joel Villanueva.
“China’s actions in the West Philippine Sea and in the whole of South China Sea are the very kind of conduct which the establishment of UNCLOS sought to prevent and is in the nature of what Ambassador Arvid Pardo, considered the father of the Law of the Sea, has warned against when he urged the United Nations to take action and advocated for a regime that would govern our oceans and seas, saying that ‘considerations of security and defense impel the major powers to appropriate areas of the ocean floor for their own exclusive use’,” the senators said in the explanatory note of the resolution.
The senators further reiterated the need for China to heed the UNCLOS as it “serves as the Constitution for the oceans and is an international treaty codifying customary international law” that does not recognize military might or strength as valid means of claiming maritime areas and resources.
The lawmakers also noted that under Articles 56 and 57 of the UNCLOS, the EEZ measures 200 nautical miles from the baselines of the coastal state, over which the latter has “sovereign right for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living.”
They stressed that China’s installation of around 27 major Chinese outposts in the East and South China Seas by sending patrol boats disguised as fishing boats and driving out other vessels, constructing ports, roads, airstrips which are later manned by military personnel equipped with sensors and weapons are in clear violation of Article 60 of the UNCLOS.
“While China’s increasing dominance as regional and world power cannot be denied, its open and serious contempt of the UNCLOS, as well as its expansion of influence in the area at the expense of legitimate interests and legally-recognized maritime entitlements of smaller nations like the Philippines, must be firmly resisted and denounced and the 2016 PCA Award vigorously stressed,” they said.
The senators stressed that close diplomatic and political ties nor promise of donations, aids or loans—whether they materialize or not—should be mistaken as acceptance of China’s “creeping hegemony over our region and country.”
“And no promise of economic largesse often undelivered should soften our resolve against these illegal and unwarranted incursions,” the senators emphasized.
China, they said, should not be allowed to rewrite or nullify the UNCLOS, which was painstakingly negotiated and ratified by various States, as such blatant disregard of established international law would not only have serious ramifications on a rules-based international order but, likewise, deprive Filipino fishermen of livelihood, prevent the Philippines from fully taking advantage of resources within its EEZ, cause irreparable damage to the marine environment and serve to militarize the South China Sea, and eventually threatens the peace and security in the region and the world.
“Therefore, be it resolved that the Senate of the Philippines condemn in the strongest possible terms the illegal activities of the People’s Republic of China in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines and other parts of the West Philippine Sea, in violation of the UNCLOS and the 2016 award by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in favor of the Philippines,” the 11 senators stressed in the resolution..