Año, Carpio warn of China’s next move after ‘nature reserve’ ploy

Eduardo Año and Antonio Carpio —PHOTOS BY GABRYELLE DUMALAG

MANILA, Philippines — National Security Adviser Eduardo Año thinks China’s announcement that it will build a “nature reserve” in Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal could lead to the “actual occupation” of the area, which is within the Philippine exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

“That pronouncement is … a prelude or a pretext for an actual occupation, because you know building a structure there will be manned by people,” Año told reporters in Makati City. “And that is actually banned.”

Patrols to continue

According to Año, building structures or placing personnel at the shoal would amount to illegal occupation. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) and the 2016 Arbitral ruling that affirmed Manila’s sovereign rights over its EEZ, any construction on disputed features within another country’s EEZ infringes on such sovereign rights.

Beijing announced on Sept. 10 that the State Council of China had approved the establishment of the so-called “Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve” at the shoal, a site of recurring tensions between Philippine and Chinese vessels.

But Año said Manila would not allow such a move, and that Philippine government vessels would continue to patrol the area as ordered by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

READ: Maritime Council rejects China’s Bajo de Masinloc ‘nature reserve’ claim

Another military base?

The shoal, a traditional fishing ground for Filipinos, lies about 229 kilometers (124 nautical miles) off Zambales and is within the country’s 370-km (200-nautical-mile) EEZ as defined by Unclos.

Former Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio also warned on Thursday that China’s plan for a “nature reserve” could pave the way for turning the feature into an air and naval base.

Carpio was part of the Philippine delegation involved in the arbitration case before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, whose landmark 2016 ruling invalidated China’s “nine-dash line” claim over the South China Sea, including areas within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

READ: West PH Sea: China wants to protect coral reefs in SCS; experts doubtful

New ‘Code of Conduct’

Carpio compared the move to China’s construction of a weather station on Fiery Cross Reef in 1987, which Beijing initially said was to help Unesco with oceanic research. Fiery Cross is now one of China’s largest military outposts in the Spratly Islands.

“That means they will put up maybe a small platform there (Scarborough) for monitoring the fish that will later on be converted into an air and naval base,” Carpio said in an interview.

Security analyst Chester Cabalza on Thursday likewise said China’s latest move is part of a broader strategy to assert control over the feature, calling it a direct challenge to the Philippines’ 2016 arbitral victory.

To counter Beijing’s conduct, Cabalza urged that the Philippines use its chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations next year to push for a “unilateral code of conduct” among Southeast Asian claimant states, even without China’s participation.

“This will be the baseline for a bigger code of conduct than what China has,” he said. “Even if it’s just three countries—the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan—we can have a unilateral code of conduct.”

While China has raised ecological protection as its aim for the planned “nature reserve,” experts are doubtful.

‘Environmental devastation’

The move has more to do with territorial claims than protecting reefs, said Bec Strating, a professor of international relations at La Trobe University in Australia. She described the move as “the weaponization of environmental concerns.”

Scholars of environmental and marine science say that Chinese harvesting of giant clams, which was banned last year, has caused extensive damage to Scarborough Shoal.

Chinese ships dragged their propellers through the reefs to dig up the clams until 2016. Then they switched to firing high-pressure water at the reefs, said Ray Powell, founder and director of SeaLight, a group at Stanford University that tracks maritime “gray-zone” activity.

China is “attempting to strengthen its claim while diverting scrutiny from the environmental devastation its own fleets inflicted—like an arsonist who torches a property and then appoints himself fire marshal amid the ashes,” Powell said. —WITH A REPORT FROM AP