Ex-SC justice says database needed to keep Filipinos informed of fight for sovereignty vs China

MANILA, Philippines—Retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio is proposing a national database to keep track of the developments in the West Philippine Sea for the next generation of Filipinos.

At an online forum, he described the West Philippine Sea dispute as an “intergenerational struggle.”

“This will not be solved in our generation. This will probably be solved in succeeding generations,” Carpio said.

The South China Sea is one of the world’s busiest shipping routes and is subject to overlapping territorial disputes for decades. The claimants involve the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan.

The Philippine claims refer to the West Philippine Sea. However, China claims ownership of nearly the entire South China Sea and has aggressively built military outposts on artificial islands.

In recent years, it has also emerged as a flashpoint of US-China rivalry.

In 2016, the international tribunal in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines in a maritime dispute, ruling that China’s massive claims in the South China Sea have no basis.

The ruling was swept under the rug when President Rodrigo Duterte came to power.

Carpio said a “good database” would educate the Filipino youth, who would continue the struggle to defend the West Philippine Sea.

“We must have a very good database of our arguments and all that we have done so far in terms of historical, legal, environmental research must be put in one place so that this can be accessed by future generations,” he said.

“If the present generation, we, educate our youth that the sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea belongs to the Filipinos then they will continue the struggle,” Carpio said.

The retired justice said that the Chinese government has taught its citizens that the South China Sea belongs to them.

“It’s shameful for the Chinese people to claim that they own the South China Sea because it’s totally false,” he said.

That is why he said it was important that Filipinos must be educated “to convince the Chinese to give up these ridiculous claims.”

Edited by TSB