The President’s top legal adviser on Thursday said the Philippines does not recognize China’s claim to territories in the West Philippine Sea, a day after he said Beijing had “legal and constructive possession” of the disputed areas.
“Of course not! We’re not [recognizing their possession]. As far as we’re concerned, we’ve been ruled to be owning that portion of territory or we have [an] exclusive right to particular territories,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a press briefing Thursday.
Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on Thursday urged Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin to disown Panelo’s earlier statement, saying it was prejudicial to the Philippines’ position in its maritime dispute with China.
Carpio, who has been in the forefront of advocating the country’s maritime interest in the SCS, warned that Panelo’s statement, if not denied, would bind the Philippines and consequently diminish the 2016 Arbitral Award by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which invalidated China’s nine-dash-line claim in favor of the Philippines.
“It’s very serious because China will always cite the statement of the chief presidential legal counsel that ‘the Philippines has admitted that we [China] are in legal possession and therefore that ruling will not apply anymore, because this is a subsequent statement of the Philippines’,” Carpio told CNN Philippines.
Both the President and the Department of Foreign Affairs secretary have the duty to reject Panelo’s statement, he said.
“Secretary Panelo added that this is the thinking of the President that China [is in] legal possession. So it’s the duty of the President to disown the statement,” Carpio said.
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“Otherwise we will be bound by this statement and China will keep on citing this in the future, every time we assert the ruling they will say ‘Oh, you already admitted we are in legal possession’,” he said.
During his 4th State of the Nation Address, Duterte said that China is already “in possession” of the South China Sea.
However, the country’s defense and security officials immediately clarified the President’s remark.
National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. on Tuesday said China was just “in position” in the South China Sea as it had established its presence in key areas. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana supported Esperon’s statement.
Carpio said an admission that China is in possession of the South China Sea would mean that the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which is mandated to protect the country’s territory, “have been remiss.”
“If you say in possession then one: the Armed Forces of the Philippines—tasked under the Constitution to protect our national territory, to protect or exclusive economic zone—have been remiss, they have not performed their duty,” he said.
“I’m happy that Secretary Lorenzana and Secretary Esperon have taken the position of clarifying that it is not possession, it’s position. And because they understand the consequence,” Carpio added.
“That is like telling to the Armed Forces ‘You have not performed your duty’. So, I think for them [Esperon and Lorenzana], they cannot accept that, and I agree with them, and factually that is not correct because China is not in actual possession,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Palace refused to state its position about a Chinese warship. which passed through the Sibutu Passage near Tawi-Tawi, which is within the Philippines’ archipelagic and territorial waters.
Panelo said he would leave the matter to Locsin.
“That’s his turf,” he said.
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