MANILA, Philippines — Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on Friday warned President Rodrigo Duterte against “formalizing” his verbal fishing deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his fourth State of the Nation Address (Sona) on July 22.
Carpio issued this statement after Duterte announced that he will use his Sona to “educate” the people about the constitutionality of his agreement with Xi, allowing Chinese fishermen to trawl within Philippine territory.
The fishing pact was supposedly agreed upon by the two leaders during Duterte’s state visit to Beijing in 2016 but was only publicized in June following the ramming and sinking of a Filipino fishing boat by a Chinese vessel at Recto (Reed) Bank.
Carpio said that Duterte mentioning about the controversial verbal agreement will make the Philippines “legally bound” to the “lopsided” fishing deal.
“I do not see anything positive out of that Sona if he will do that because that means that we are finally bound with that verbal agreement,” Carpio said in the West Philippine Sea forum.
“The moment he makes that statement in the Sona, it’s a final confirmation that that verbal agreement is now a legal agreement binding on the Philippines and China,” he added.
Carpio explained that the Philippines is “terribly at the losing end of that agreement” since it allows China’s massive fishing fleet to exploit the entire West Philippine Sea.
“We are terribly at the losing end of that agreement because we’re opening the entire West Philippine Sea to China’s fishing fleet in exchange for our fishermen to fish in the periphery of Scarborough Shoal,” he said.
“It’s just lopsided,” he added.
On Friday, July 12, was the third anniversary of Manila’s landmark arbitral victory against China’s expansive claim in the West Philippine Sea.
China, however, openly refused to honor the ruling as Duterte chose to shelve the Permanent Court of Arbitration decision and engage Asia’s largest economy to bilateral talks. /kga
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