Philippines warns of pro-China South China Sea ruling

By Roy Ramos

ZAMBOANGA

The Philippines has expressed confidence that The Hague will come up with a "just decision" in an arbitration case it has filed relating to a maritime dispute over parts of the South China Sea, warning that any decision in support of China could provide an echo of Cold War Germany.

A ruling favorable to China “would convert the nine-dash line, or its equivalent in the form of exaggerated maritime zones for tiny, uninhabitable features, into a Berlin Wall of the Sea,” Philstar.com on Tuesday quoted Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario as saying.

Del Rosario -- who led The Philippine team at the tribunal with Solicitor General Florin Hilbay -- said that such a judgment would be tantamount to building a “giant fence, owned by, and excluding everyone but China itself”.

The tribunal finally agreed to hear Manila's case last month, after it lodged a case with the United Nations in 2013 challenging the legality of Beijing’s assertion that its ownership of the sea is “indisputable” and “historical.”

On Tuesday, China reasserted that the tribunal had no jurisdiction over the matter, and China "does not accept and does not participate in the arbitration position."

"China's position is clear and consistent," Hua Chunying, the spokesperson for China's foreign ministry, said in daily press briefing.

The Philippines team ended its oral arguments in the case Monday, which seeks to reaffirm the country's rights to disputed islands in the region, while questioning China’s massive claim over almost the whole of the area which Filipinos call the West Philippine Sea.

China has cited “historical facts” and its nine-dash line for justifying its claim on the disputed territory. Meanwhile, other Southeast Asian nations have overlapping claims.

In his speech, Del Rosario sought to underline that whatever the decision of the tribunal, it would have an impact on the fate of the Philippines, the region and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

“We confidently entrust our fate, the fate of the region and, indeed, the fate of the Convention to you,” Philstar.com quoted him as saying as he expressed confidence the court’s “capable hands” would steer the issue to “a truly just solution.”

Del Rosario pleaded that the court decide on the case on the basis of UNCLOS alone, as doing otherwise “would leave the Philippines, and its ASEAN neighbors, in worse straits than when we embarked on this arbitral voyage.”

“That said, your mandate to achieve justice is not carried out in a vacuum. Judges and arbitrators are not expected to be oblivious to the realities on the ground,” Del Rosario added.

Allowing China a “potential entitlement” to 200 nautical miles on the basis of a “speck of broken coral and sand” in the middle of the South China Sea and West Philippine Sea would hand Beijing a “golden key,” Del Rosario said, quoting one of the Philippines’ legal representatives.

China -- which has refused participation in the hearing -- has been given until Jan. 1 by the tribunal to rebut the Philippines's case.

"We view China as a valued friend, and it is precisely to preserve that friendship that we initiated this arbitration," Del Rosario said.

On Tuesday, China's foreign ministry spokesperson responded that it would not accept any solution imposed on it, nor accept the unilateral resort to third party dispute settlement, which is China's right as a sovereign country.

"Philippines attempts to deny... China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea... will not have any effect," she underlined.

*Anadolu Agency correspondent Satuk Bugra Kutlugun contributed to this story from Ankara