Experts refute Marcoleta: ‘West Philippine Sea is real’

West Philippine Sea composite image from INQUIRER file photos
MANILA, Philippines — An analyst and a public historian refuted Sagip party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta’s dismissive claims about the West Philippine Sea.
They joined the mounting criticisms hurled against Marcoleta, who, during a House tri-committee hearing on the prevalence of fake news on Tuesday, claimed that there is no such thing as the West Philippine Sea even in the country’s maps.
However, security expert Chester Cabalza countered that the West Philippine Sea is “real and existing.”
READ: Tarriela slams Marcoleta over West Philippine Sea remarks
Article continues after this advertisement“It is not just a figment of imagination,” Cabalza said in a message to INQUIRER.net. “It is part of our imagined community and experienced culture. The West Philippine Sea forms part of our national sovereignty in the exercise of our sovereign rights.”
Article continues after this advertisementHistorian Xiao Chua said in a Facebook post Tuesday night: “Granting for the sake of argument that the West Philippine Sea does not exist, then we can also say that the Philippines itself does not exist because ‘the nation is just an imagined community’ invented by the writings and ideas of our heroes.”
“But we do exist! And so is our EEZ (exclusive economic zone),” Chua continued.
In 2012, President Benigno Aquino III signed an administrative order renaming South China Sea waters within the western section of the country’s EEZ as West Philippine Sea.
READ: It’s official: Aquino signs order on West Philippine Sea
Contrary to Marcoleta’s remarks, Aquino had directed the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority to produce and publish charts and maps of the Philippines showing the West Philippine Sea.
“It was legally constructed in 2012 to tell the world of the metes and bounds of our maritime domains and territories and the world has warmly embraced it,” Cabalza said, noting that there is a “humongous body of scholarly literature” about the West Philippine Sea which are now being taught and discussed in top universities worldwide.
Aquino made such a move in a bid to assert Manila’s sovereign rights further.
It was during the late president’s term when Manila brought Beijing before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands to contest the latter’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea.
In July 2016, an international tribunal ruled heavily in favor of Manila while effectively invalidating Beijing’s then-nine-dash line—now “ten-dash line”—claim.
“West Philippine Sea is now part of our linguistic parlance and vocabulary,” Cabalza said.
“Ordinary Filipinos sometimes equate national security to the issues in the West Philippine Sea,” he added.
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