ASEAN chairship may keep PHL from filing cases vs China, former justice says

THE PHILIPPINES’ chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2026 could be hampering the filing of more arbitration cases against China’s coercive actions in the contested South China Sea, a former Supreme Court justice said as he urged officials to boost Manila’s claims via international mediation.

The government might be reluctant to lodge arbitration cases asserting the Philippines’ Extended Continental Shelf beyond its exclusive waters and contesting Beijing’s barring of Filipino fishers in the disputed Scarborough Shoal as it may “upset” other ASEAN nations, former Supreme Court Justice Antonio T. Carpio said on Thursday.

“I’ve been trying to convince the Foreign Affairs department to file another arbitration case,” he said at a military leadership summit in Manila. “But it takes time to convince the agencies of our government here since there will be an ASEAN summit, and I think the policy is not to initiate something that would upset the participants.”

The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately reply to a Viber message seeking comment.

Other Southeast Asian nations also have competing claims in the South China Sea, and Manila is pushing for a code of conduct that would help manage tensions in the strategic waters as it hosts ASEAN next year.

Manila’s maritime council spokesman Alexander S. Lopez had said in May that the Philippine government is preparing a “foolproof” arbitration case against China, as authorities are still gathering evidence to make the charges airtight.

The Philippines first took legal action against China in 2013, filing an arbitration case in a United Nations-backed court over the Scarborough Shoal dispute. In 2016, the tribunal ruled that China had interfered with Filipino fishermen’s rights to access the area.

Scarborough is a vast fishing lagoon that lies within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone and was seized by China in 2012 following a standoff with Philippine forces.

Named Panatag by Manila and called Huangyan Dao by China, the Shoal has been at the center of renewed tensions between the countries that lay competing claims over features in the South China Sea, where trillions of dollars’ worth of trade passes through annually.

In September, China approved the creation of a 3,500-hectare reserve at the northeast rim of Scarborough Shoal, which it said is intended to preserve the ecological diversity of one of the most contested areas in the strategic waterway.

Mr. Carpio warned that China may build a monitoring station at the disputed feature to maintain its so-called reserve, using it as a pretext to gain foothold in the strategically located shoal.

“To operate a nature reserve, you must monitor it, and it can be manned,” he told reporters.

He alleged that Beijing is using “the same playbook” in strengthening its claim over Scarborough like what it had done in other contested features.

China has built man-made islands on numerous submerged features in the strategic waterway despite protests from neighboring countries, outfitting them with runways, hangars, radar systems and ports that could bolster its naval presence in the resource-rich waters.

Defense analysts have told BusinessWorld last month that China may be preparing for island-building at Scarborough, in a move that could bolster its sweeping claims in the South China Sea and reshape the strategic balance in the contested water. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio