(Eagle News)–For Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, the Philippines should require warships passing through the country’s territorial sea to keep their automatic identification system on.
Carpio issued the statement after Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana revealed some Chinese vessels that passed through Sibutu Strait in Tawi-Tawi had their AIS turned off.
According to Carpio, these vessels are passing through our territorial seas after all.
“Because they are passing through our waters and they should be open about it. They should not be passing secretly because if you turn off your AIS, that means you don’t want to be seen,” Carpio said in an interview with reporters on Wednesday, July 31.
He said the Philippines could “declare” such a policy and “announce it to the world.”
“If a submarine passes through territorial sea, it has to surface…,” he added. Moira Encina
