(Eagle News)–The Palace on Wednesday, July 24, clarified China was both “in possession of” and “in position” in the South China Sea.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo issued the clarification after National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said President Rodrigo Duterte merely stated China was “in position” in the area also claimed by the Philippines in his State of the Nation Address on Monday, July 22.
“They are positionally in advantage kasi nga marami silang military. So there is no contradiction between position and possession,” Panelo said.
According to the spokesperson, “possession and position are the same because they are in constructive possession by reason of the position and control of the military installations there.”
“That’s why they are in control,” Panelo said.
In his SONA, Duterte defended his giving of fishing rights to China in the West Philippine Sea, saying that this was allowed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas and by the 2016 arbitral ruling that invalidated China’s expansive claims in the area.
According to Duterte, while the Philippines’ ownership of the West Philippine Sea was internationally recognized, he had to maintain a “balancing act” in his handling of the issue to avoid violence, since China was “in possession” of the area since the “fiasco” during the time of then-President Noynoy Aquino.
He was referring to the pullout of Philippine ships in Scarborough Shoal during a standoff with Chinese vessels in the area, a move Duterte has said meant, under international law, that the Philippines ceded the same to China.
Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has denied China was “in possession” of the entire West Philippine Sea, saying the Asian giant was only in possession of seven features in the Spratlys including Scarborough Shoal.
He said during the Duterte administration, China also seized Sandy Cay from the Philippines.
” The total area of these geologic features, including their territorial seas (if any), is less than 7% of the WPS,” Carpio said.
