1Sambayan says ‘definitive resolution’ needed in WPS issue

MANILA, Philippines — The 1Sambayan political coalition urged for a resolution grounded in international law amid the continued aggression by China in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

The 1Sambayan said that the unresolved issues in the WPS should once again be brought before a tribunal constituted under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).

“This is not an alternative to standing our ground. It is how a country of our size stands. We undid the nine-dash line with a pleading and not a fleet, and that instrument remains in our hands.” it said in a statement.

READ: After 2016 arbitral award, West Philippine Sea shifted from fish to force

The 2016 arbitral award declared that China’s nine-dash line, now the 10-dash line, has no legal basis under international law.

The move became a landmark win for the country as it affirmed the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone.

The coalition said the country should seek a “definitive resolution” that came from Unclos instead of settling for a “quieter week at sea.”

Among it mentioned is the extended continental shelf west of Palawan, whose maritime and seabed claim is being fought over by China, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

It expressed that the issue with the territorial claim in the province cannot be addressed by “diplomacy alone while the seabed beneath remains unassigned.”

“Those overlapping claims belong before the arbitral tribunal, where entitlement is settled by the Convention rather by whichever state keeps the most hulls on station,” it said.

It, moreover, condemned China’s blatant disregard of the 2016 arbitral award, which found that Scarborough Shoal is a traditional fishing ground among Filipino, Chinese, and Vietnamese fishermen.

“That refusal is itself an arbitrable wrong,” it said.

It added, “and the case should be brought with a demand for the damages our fishermen have borne – the lost catch, the lost boats, the lost years of livelihood for which no one has yet answered,” 

The coalition further urged for an intensified presence in the Ayungin Shoal and recommended a Philippine Coast Guard sub-station in the area.

“For as long as our presence there is exclusively a naval one, that door stays shut,” it said.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. previously warned that failing to defend the WPS would lead to scarce maritime resources in the country.

This, as a renewed dispute with Beijing sparked over a joint oil and gas exploration plan in 2018 that ended without a final agreement. /mr

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