Defending Philippine Sovereign Rights in the West Philippine Sea

The topic was entitled “Defending Philippine Sovereign Rights in the West Philippine
Sea” where it was presented by retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio. He started
his lecture about the million tons of resources, mainly oil and petroleum gas, that can be found
in the West Philippine Sea and that is the reason why China wants to own the islands
supposedly belonging to Exclusive Economic Zone of the Philippines. After that, he discussed
the history of the Philippines with pictures of the Ancient Maps showing that the West Philippine
Sea is rightfully owned by the Filipinos while China has their 9-dash line of 2,000 years ago
which is baseless in front of the UN Tribunal. On the last part of his lecture, he mentioned the
actions done by the Philippine government during the past centuries to claim and gain control of
the disputed sea and he had also given information about the EEZ, UNCLOS and Freedom of
Navigation by any country. I agree in everything that Justice Carpio had discussed because his
presentation and statements are based on historical events and facts with credible sources and
not just opinionated.

Yes, because in the first place he is a Senior Associate Justice with high educational
background and commendable experiences in the academe. During his presentation of the
topic, he correlates historical events in the West Philippine Sea by stating significant facts to
support his statement like mentioning the Ancient Map of the Philippines where it is clear that
the islands Zubi Reef, Scarborough Shoal and other islands are part of the 200 nautical miles
EEZ of the Philippines. China on the other hand has no solid proof that it is rightfully theirs yet
they are insisting that the 9-dash line is older than that of the ancient Philippine Map. If we can
see on the picture, their 9-dash line is very near to Palawan which is against the 200 nautical
miles EEZ of the UNCLOS. In fact, the Philippines won against China on the West Philippine
Sea dispute in 2016 but China did not honor the result of the arbitration ruling and they keep
insisting that they own that part of the sea with the 9-dash line as their basis. Carpio also
showed that there are treaties stating that the Philippines is the rightful owner of the
Scarborough shoal and there are documents shown proofing the treaty was legit. Until now, with
all the arguments, historic events, documents, treaties, ancient maps and rulings favoring the
Philippines are useless because the West Philippine Sea remains disputed and China has
already built their fortress on Philippine waters. That only shows that history really repeats itself.
On our case, China is invading the Philippines without bloodshed by claiming the islands and
we only rely on our superpower allies like the U.S and Great Britain for support and shooing
away the warships of the Chinese Navy.

When I opened the link to watch the video on YouTube, I was already bored and lazy
because it has a duration of 1 hour and 22 minutes and it is pure lecture and discussion. But in
the end, it is my exam so it is a must to watch it and answer what is asked. When I watched it
until the end, I felt like I’m stressed with so much information to digest and make an output out
of it. Yet I manage to finish it for the sake of my grade. Despite everything, I learned many
things about the Philippines and China and some words and acronyms are added into my
vocabulary. One thing that I learned from it is that, powerful country like China will always bully
and underestimate a developing country like the Philippines if it will not stand their ground and
fight for their right.