Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has been badgering PRRD to insist on the favorable ruling by the International Arbitral Court in The Hague regarding issues in the West Philippine Sea with China.
This, despite the pronouncement of Pres. Duterte that Chinese Pres. Xi Jin Ping has personally told him that China might declare war if the Philippines will persist.
Carpio fears that China may transform Panatag Shoal, a resource-rich fishing ground just 230 kms west of Zambales, into an artificial island and install military facilities.
China seized the Panatag Shoal in 2012 during a maritime standoff that prompted Manila authorities to bring the territorial dispute to the IAC.
While Carpio is admittedly pursuing the matter via the legal route, he may not be privy to the looming threat of a war as made public by the Chief Executive.
Which is why PRRD, in our eyes, is treading a very careful stance and choosing, not to close his eyes, to take a more prudent course of action at this time.
Carpio, as press reports stated, claims that PRRD has practically permitted China’s reclamation work at Panatag Shoal after the latter announced he could not do anything to stop China.
The senior magistrate warns that China is claiming 80 percent of the South China Sea, a 1,700 kilometer-long boundary it would share with the Philippines but would only leave a “tiny sliver of water” within the Exclusive Economic Zone that is separating the two countries.
He says if the Philippines does not stand up and assert its sovereignty, the country may end up just like Finland in its boundary relations with the USSR then.
Carpio called it “Finlandization,” a term that referred to the neutralization of a small and vulnerable country to avoid being taken over by a bigger and more powerful neighboring country.
“Finland has been occupied by Russia before. To remain sovereign and independent, it had to be neutral. It has to follow Russia’s foreign policies,” the SC most senior justice explained.
He stressed that the arbitral ruling was not just a paper victory for the Philippines after the UN-backed IAC invalidated China’s claims to almost all the South China Sea.
I think we all agree with the good justice. We see his point.
But China has stonewalled. It is not afraid to go to war against us.
What shall we do? Send our puny naval fleet and navymen aboard second-hand battleships to drive away the huge Chinese armada with a wave of a hand?
Let us all assume PRRD follows Carpio’s wise counsel and insist on the arbitral ruling. Who do we turn to for help? If all else fails – peace efforts, UN mediation, etc. – are we ready to go to war and prove to the world Filipinos are brave patriots willing to die to reclaim Panatag Shoal?
Remember that China is one of only five countries composing the powerful UN Security Council. My gut feeling tells me the US would not militarily meddle.
Our country has always been the sacrificial lamb. In the Pacific War, Japan invaded us because of the presence of US military facilities in the country.
Mr. Carpio suggests that PRRD follow the “three anchors of national policy” in the resolution of the South China Sea dispute.
He (the Philippine leader) must be “friendly to trade with China but remain steadfast in defending the country’s territory and maritime entitlements.”
At the same time, Carpio says the leader must also respect and nurture the Philippines’ military alliance with the US (Mutual Defense Treaty).
Ok, ok. But China is unmoved by all these militant posturings. It appears to me that China is really prepared to go to war if the issue goes from push to shove.
Are we ready to fire the first shot and ignite a possible nuclear conflict that may bring the superpowers against each other and spark the Third World War?
We are alone in this fight. Even our ASEAN allies have been half-muted. Believe me, the US – under Pres. Trump – will not get involve in a war not of its own making. China is not a pushover. America has learned painful, scarred lessons in Vietnam, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Libya and elsewhere.
PRRD interjects: “There is a time for everything.” (Email your feedback to fredlumba@yahoo.com.) GOD BLESS THE PHILIPPINES!
