Protecting marine resources ‘bigger issue than impeaching president’

Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio yesterday said protecting the country’s marine resources is more important than having President Rodrigo Duterte impeached.
“I’m not interested in impeachment. I want protection. Impeachment means it’s over, it means he already failed in defending our territory. I’m more interested in the preventive side,” Carpio told reporters at the sidelines of a federalism conference in Taguig City.
While it will be up to Congress to take up any impeachment complaint against the president, Carpio stressed that what the country needed was to assert its rights over its exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
He added that China, a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, did not let other countries exploit its own EEZ. “In their (China) EEZ, no other country can fish and that’s the rule all over the world,” Carpio said.
President Duterte earlier said he would not stop Chinese fishermen from exploiting marine resources in Philippine waters because China was a friend.
He called Carpio, a staunch advocate of the country’s rights in the West Philippine Sea (WPS or South China Sea), “stupid” for asserting that Chinese fishermen were not allowed to poach marine resources in the Philippine EEZ.
“It (defending EEZ) is something very precious to us, you cannot say it’s thoughtless or useless,” Carpio said.
The magistrate, however, said going to war was never an option because the Constitution renounces war as “an instrument of national policy.”
“We denounce war, we cannot go to war to enforce the ruling, it’s in the Constitution. It’s totally absurd that we have to go to war,” he said, referring to the ruling of a United Nations-backed arbitral tribunal that invalidated China’s claims on the WPS.
“Of course, we also know that if we go to war with China to enforce the arbitral ruling, we will lose and lose badly. Only a fool will go to war with China,” Carpio added.
The Supreme Court justice said the Philippines, Malaysia, China and Brunei should form a commission to manage and protect the marine environment in the WPS.
He cited as an example the “successful” peace treaty between Jordan and Israel over a disputed patch of water in the Red Sea, where they agreed to jointly manage it and rehabilitate its marine environment.
“It’s important for us, our country depends on the fish that fishermen catch, so there should be a big economic incentive for everybody,” he said.
Former Foreign Affairs secretary Albert del Rosario had said Duterte could be impeached if he fails to protect the Philippines’ national territory, including the EEZ. Last Sunday, Malacanang said there was no need to convene the National Security Council (NSC) to discuss the ramming of a Philippine boat by a Chinese vessel in Recto (Reed) Bank early in June.Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo said the country was not facing a crisis. “You only do that if there is a crisis. We have no crisis,” Panelo said.
Sen. Richard Gordon had earlier urged the president to convene the NSC to discuss the Recto Bank incident.
“The president must now call the National Security Council. We cannot depend on the personal friendship of the president,” the senator said.
Duterte has downplayed the boat-ramming incident as he sought to avoid ruffling the feathers of China, triggering a barrage of criticism.
The president said the government would tolerate Chinese fishermen poaching on Philippine waters.