By Reynaldo O. Arcilla
A CHINESE research vessel, Jiageng, was reportedly doing marine scientific research 52 nautical miles north northwest of Burgos, Ilocos Norte last week. That’s within the 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Philippines and does not even fall within the ludicrous Chinese nine-dash-line claim over the South China Sea!
China professes to be our friend. But friends don’t do that — enter the EEZ of another without permission. Such action gives rise to misgivings about its true intentions.
Is it any wonder then that China’s main adversary, the United States, along with Australia, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, keep harping on its alleged evil designs against its small neighbors?
The Itlos
France, Germany and the UK submitted a note verbale last September 16 to the United Nations challenging the legality of China’s claim over the South China Sea.
They said China’s exercise of “historic rights” over the South China Sea “does not comply with international law and the provisions of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).”
In what sounded like an afterthought, they also said that the arbitral ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Philippines vs China case dated July 12, 2016 “clearly confirms this point.”
This last statement only serves to highlight the grievous mistake, stupidity if you will, of ex-President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd and his Super Amboy of a Foreign secretary, Albert del Rosario, for going to the PCA to decide on China’s claim.
The PCA’s decision in fact has no standing in international law for the simple reason that it was rendered without China agreeing to the arbitration and not participating in it. That is a conditio sine qua non for any arbitral decision to be valid.
Why Aquino and del Rosario went ahead and spent a reported P700 million for the American lawyers’ fees for the invalid PCA ruling, only they know.
Some say they were prevailed upon by the US to do so.
On hindsight, wouldn’t they have done better if they went directly to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (Itlos)?
Here is what Wikipedia says of Itlos:
“The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea is an intergovernmental organization created by the mandate of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. It was established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, signed at Montego Bay, Jamaica on Dec. 10, 1982. The Convention entered into force on Nov. 16, 1994, and established an international framework for law over ‘all ocean space, its uses and resources.’ The Itlos is one of four dispute resolution mechanisms listed at Article 287 of the Unclos.
“The tribunal is based in Hamburg, Germany. The Convention also established the International Seabed Authority, with responsibility for the regulation of seabed mining beyond the limits of national jurisdiction, that is beyond the limits of the territorial sea, the contiguous zone and the continental shelf.”
China and the Philippines are signatories to Unclos. The US is not.
(I was one of the four members of the Philippine delegation who signed the Final Document of Unclos in Montego Bay, Jamaica.)
PH fishing boat rammed by Chinese
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has already sent to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) the estimated cost of the damage to the 22 Filipino fishermen whose fishing boat, the MV Gem-Ver, was rammed by a Chinese fishing vessel near Recto Bank in June last year.
“The total estimated civil damages amount to something like P12 million plus for the repair of the fishing boat, for lost income and wages for a period of six months. The owner of the vessel also asked for moral damages,” Guevarra said.
“We have submitted this estimate to the DFA. We’re expecting they will forward this to the Chinese government. We’re just waiting for the reaction of the Chinese government,” he added.
After ramming the Filipino fishing boat on the night of June 9, 2019, the Chinese vessel hurriedly left without helping the distressed Filipinos, who could have all died were it not for a passing Vietnamese vessel that rescued them.
The Chinese government, hopefully, will gracefully settle the claim…as a friend.
Rescue of missing Filipino crewmen
Foreign Secretary Teodoro “Tweeterboy” Locsin Jr. flatly refused to ask other nations to help in the search and rescue operations of the still missing 36 (two have been rescued and the body of another found) Filipino crew members of the Gulf Livestock 1 cargo vessel that sank due to a powerful typhoon that struck Japan recently.
Tweeterboy’s reason: It would be an “attack” on Japan’s sovereignty.
What?! Ang layo naman!!! Has he asked the Japanese government? It seems farfetched that Japan would consider such a humanitarian undertaking as an “attack” on its sovereignty. On the contrary, I think it would even welcome it.
Besides, the search and rescue operations will not be confined to Japan’s territorial waters.
Family members of those missing have called on the Philippine government to resume the search and expand it to waters off South Korea, Taiwan and China.
DICT Secretary Gregorio Honasan
Why President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte appointed ex-senator Gregorio Honasan Secretary of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) still has everyone in the telecommunications industry baffled.
Better known as a putschist during the Corazon Aquino administration and implicated in the coup attempts of ex-senator Antonio Trillanes 4th against the Arroyo regime, not to mention his lackluster performance in the Senate for four consecutive terms, Honasan said the Philippines’ internet speed was “not that bad.”
“Right now, without going into figures, we are not doing too badly. But this is so hard to explain to the public,” he told members of the House appropriations committee. “Of course, compared to other countries, they can reach up to 55 Mbps (megabits per second) while ours is still between 3 and 7 Mbps. But this is not that bad.”
An internet speed of 3 to 7 Mbps against 55 Mbps is not that bad?! Where is the fellow coming from? I wonder if he even does any browsing in the internet.
Moreover, with a DICT undersecretary who is better known as a musician, people in the telecommunications industry cannot help wondering about the future of digitalization in the country.
Source Manila Times 09-22-2020