PHILIPPINES vs. CHINA, Who really owns the Scarborough Shoal?

By: Jay Senap

The topic is very exciting for me and perhaps to all of us Filipinos, as this is our fight to defend our territories against invaders or from any foreign countries wanting to invade us and to take control of our own resources. This study will answer several questions that most of us are concerned with like, who really owns the Scarborough “Panatag” Shoal? What are the basis of the Philippines in its dispute to claim the shoal, and what are the opponent’s reasons to defend that the island is theirs? How serious the Philippine government to defend its claim and what are the vital steps and plans do we have to stand on our dispute? And, why do we have to argue and fight against a giant nation to win over a parcel of an island – what does a Scarborough shoal has to contribute on Philippine economy?

Dispute on Scarborough shoal is a long time issue between our nation – the Philippines versus the People’s Republic of China and Republic of China which is Taiwan. A long time unresolved issue that was intensified on April 2012, when our Philippine navy’s surveillance plane, patrolling within the vicinity,  spotted eight Chinese fishing boat into the shoal, Philippine navy immediately sent the BRP Gregorio del Pilar frigate to survey and check the area. Two days later, the inspection team, discovered that the spotted Chinese vessels were involved in illegal fishing activities. The team tried to apprehend the fishermen but two Chinese surveillance ships showed up to protect the culprits.  This continued for over a week until such time when we’ve withdrawn our frigate to replenish oil, this happened when the third Chinese frigate was arriving. On the other hand, to cover up the discovery on China’s illegal activity on the place, Beijing claimed that Manila struck the first blow by dispatching its frigate so they just followed to send the surveillance ships to defend its fishermen and the disputed island.

This instances, were sensationalized and were talked over internationally and a lot more discussions, debates and opinions were printed and have thrown over questions such as who really owns Scarborough Shoal? Said incident made Filipino community group in the US to propose boycotting of Chinese products. In response, Chinese travel agencies cancelled package tours to the Philippines and the worst thing happened during the height of the issue was the rampant cyber-attack as both parties were engaged in mutual cyber bullying “cyber hacking activities”, an example was the website of the University of the Philippines whose webpage was once defaced and were left with a Chinese message that says “Scarborough shoal is not Philippines” this was followed by several more attacks on other Philippine government websites. On the contrary, Philippine hackers, who named themselves as Anonymous Philippines also did a counter attack and four Chinese websites were totally defaced and were left with a message that Scarborough and the rest of the Spratlys’ are ours, some of the Chinese websites are: China Youth Online; P. Loft Youth Hostel; Chinese government website and the Chinese University Media Union website.

Hence that standoff was started, next issue was the tension followed at the ASEAN Foreign Minister Meeting in Cambodia. This happened when ASEAN Chair Cambodia, a known ally of China, ignored the Philippines’ plea to include the territorial disputes in the South China Sea in the submitted joint statement. President Benigno Aquino III, took his initiative to talk to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen after the unsuccessful attempts in resolving the conflicts during the December 2012 ASEAN meeting and after the latter agreed to take the issue off the table. But like the first two attempts none of it was successful. This, according to Philippine government, is a mere representation of a split on the association - ASEAN.

The Philippines has a strong protest regarding its position on the Scarborough Shoal dispute. Although we’ve never been successful to get an ally or sympathy from ASEAN, the Philippines is planning to escalate and bring the issue to International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) as warranted in part XV of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and to International Court to settle the issue and to resolve conflicts between the two nations. But China does not want that insisting for bilateral discussions only. Is China afraid of UNCLOS and the International Court? Supposed that China will agree to go to court, are we confident enough to win the battle? Included on most articles that I’ve read and even on Prof. Battung’s report are the obvious nationalistic reason as to why the Philippines is continuously fighting to get the final resolution on the issue. Additionally, the Philippines assertion of sovereignty over the shoal is based on the juridical criteria established by public international law on the lawful methods for the acquisition of sovereignty. The Philippine government also noted that since the legal basis of its claim is based on the international law on acquisition of sovereignty, the Exclusive Economic Zone claim on the waters around Scarborough is another thing and in fact another valid and acceptable reason to proceed with the claim. There are also articles and reports showing that The Treaty of Paris is another thing, which if in turn will also a great proof and point for the country to claim the Shoal. But other documents does not guarantee it. So I guess, the Philippines can stand alone on the aforementioned reasons above notwithstanding the Treaty of Paris. What about China? What are their stand on the dispute?

China, on the other hand, is disputing Scarborough Shoal as accordingly, Chinese people were the first to discover the shoal centuries ago and that there is a long history of Chinese fishing activity in the area. The shoal lies within the nine-dotted line drawn by China on maps marking its claim to around two-thirds of the total area of the South China Sea. China likewise claims that all the islands, reefs, and shoals within a U-shaped line in the South China Sea drawn in 1947 as its territory. Scarborough shoal lies within this area that’s why they are claiming this as part of their historical assets and properties. These and a lot more historical reasons were cited to prove that the disputed island is China’s territory, but none of these are solid and good enough to be a basis under the rule of International court and even under UNCLOS for Filipinos, as accordingly there is no indication that the international community has acquiesced to China's historical claim, and that the activity of fishing of private Chinese individuals, claimed to be a traditional exercise among these waters, does not constitute a sovereign act of the Chinese State. Chen Hurng-yu, a contributor of the Beijing Times released an article opposing the Philippines’ claim on the island. The writer specifically mentioned that the Philippines should not mislead the people of the world on its false claims. The writer tailored out his stand regarding the Mapa General, Islas Filipinas, Observatorio de Manila that was first published in 1899, as part of the Philippine basis on its dispute, stating that Scarborough Shoal is part of the Philippines. The writer strongly believe that none of those maps presented by the Philippines proves that Scarborough Shoal belong to the Philippines. The contributor confusedly asks that “If all land shown on the map belonged to the Philippines, why would the southern part of Taiwan be shown at the top and part of Borneo at the bottom? Does this mean these places belong to the Philippines too?

Scarborough Shoal is very important on both countries as the shoal lies across the South China Sea, now known as the West Philippine Sea, For the Philippines alone, this is very important as the location is one of the world’s busiest shipping lane and is believed to hold vast mineral resources, as well as oil and gas deposits. We needed these natural resources to fuel our economy and for our survival, and I guess the same thing applies to China. They can extract these resources regardless if environmental safety is observed. Because first of all, the shoal is really far away from their coast and it is the Philippine islands and its citizens who will be greatly affected with hazards of explorations if there would be.

My final view regarding this matter, not to favor out my country, still goes to the Philippines. Why? We have presented substantial, valid and acceptable reasons and proof that will serve as our evidence(s) good enough to proceed with our claim. Plus the mere fact that the Shoal is just about 123 miles or 198 kilometers west of Subic Bay, Zambales, and is considered as part of the province as it is often referred to as Baju de Masinloc of Zambales, compared to its current distance to China, we can rightfully claim the island as our territory. Another thing is, as seen on TV there’d been Filipino inhabitants in the area, this also proves that the island belongs to the Philippines. I can still remember one of my professors in Bicol, in my Political Science class, when I asked her the question “up to where will be the extent of the judicial jurisdiction of the Philippines in terms of water, land and even on air?” She answered that before the law of the Sea and other international law governing the issues on national territories of  each country was created, there was no definite range to answer the question “up to where is the extent” because as long as the country is able to protect his territories, they can rightfully claim it as theirs. I guess the same principle is being used by China for claiming Scarborough Shoal as their territory for it was their grand-historians who pioneered the claim on Scarborough Shoal as theirs ‘though substantial proof is not and cannot be provided, this might also be the reason why they do not want this issue to be sent up to the International court.

A lot of discussions that favors China and even the Philippines was observed during the height of the issue and I guess it is the right time to put an end to it. If China will just agree to bring this to UNCLOS, I am optimistic that the issue will be fully resolved and we will for sure be living back to normal. If in the event that the decision won’t be favorable to the Philippines, Filipino people as naturally gifted, will surely find another way to get it back in a peaceful and rightful manner. And if at the final process, we really didn’t make it to the end, as optimistic people of the world, we will surely accept it. The government and its people should just be firm in dealing with this issue so we can prevent untoward incidents that may cause a life/lives of Filipino(s). Let us show them that although we are small and our military weapons are not that advanced as theirs, we can still defend and protect our territories, our people and our nation in a manner that is acceptable to the International rules and conducts.