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发帖数: 357 | 1 Psst… US isn’t with Unclos
By: Rigoberto Tiglao
Philippine Daily Inquirer
1:03 am | Thursday, May 10th, 2012
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It’s been awkward—even comical—for the Aquino administration to be
begging the United States for arms to defend our Scarborough Shoal
claim, which it declared is based on the United Nations Convention on
the Law of the Sea (Unclos): the Americans aren’t with the convention.
The US—together with Israel and Turkey—is among 34 nations that have
not ratified Unclos; they therefore officially do not recognize it.
State Secretary Hillary Clinton in 2009 said the US Senate would ratify
it soon. Three years later, it hasn’t even scheduled a vote on it.
The US’ rejection of Unclos—ratified by 162 nations including China
and Russia—in fact unmasks American foreign policy’s basic guideline:
“Might is right.” The US is the sole military global superpower now, its
navy dwarfing that of Russia and China combined. Why would the US allow
these 162 Unclos military weaklings tell what its all-powerful navy can
and cannot do, where it can or cannot go?
Two Unclos provisions illustrate this point. Article 20: “In the
territorial sea, submarines and other underwater vehicles are required
to navigate on the surface and to show their flag.” Would American
nuclear submarines, which routinely, secretly traverse Chinese and
Russian waters want that? Article 88: “The high seas shall be reserved
for peaceful purposes.” But international waters make up the base of US
warships, from which it projects its military power globally.
President Aquino and his officials have been banging their fists on
the table complaining to the world that China is refusing to have the
dispute settled by the International Tribunal for Unclos.
They’re in for a surprise: The Philippines isn’t also with
Unclos—when it comes to sovereignty disputes like that on Scarborough.
The Marcos government ratified Unclos in 1984. But it did not ratify
the treaty in full, declaring that it doesn’t recognize Unclos on
certain issues. Guess which?
On issues of sovereignty. Our country formally filed
an eight-paragraph document when it ratified Unclos, which declared
that nothing in the treaty would apply to its territorial claims. Its
Paragraph 4 reads: “Such signing shall not in any manner impair or
prejudice the sovereignty of the Philippines over any territory over
which it exercises sovereign authority, such as the Kalayaan Islands,
and the waters appurtenant thereto.”
In other words, we’ve declared that we do not recognize Unclos when
it comes to our territorial disputes, such as that on Scarborough. The
only body that can revise that restriction is the Philippine Senate.
And what were China’s qualifications when it ratified Unclos in 1996?
On issues of sovereignty. China in its own
declaration said that it “reaffirms its sovereignty over all its
archipelagos and islands as listed in article 2 of the Law of the
People’s Republic of China on the territorial sea and the contiguous
zone, which was promulgated on 25 February 1992.” That law declared as
part of China what it called the Zhongsha Islands, which included
Huangyan (Panatag to us).
In other words, both the Philippines and China—in fact most of the
countries which ratified Unclos—don’t recognize the treaty when it comes
to determining territorial disputes.
Didn’t they bother check what Unclos tribunal does? Of the 19 cases
brought to it since 1997, nearly all were about maritime disputes, i.e.,
commercial vessels in some tiff with a foreign government. The only
case that remotely dealt with sovereignty was about Burma’s (Myanmar)
and Bangladesh’s maritime boundaries at the Bay of Bengal between the
two countries.
First, Mr. Aquino makes the colossal blunder of sending a warship
against Chinese fishermen, thereby militarizing the dispute, even as the
vessel embarrassingly turned tail after a few days as it ran out of
supplies. Then he insists that the dispute be decided by a court which,
however, can’t have jurisdiction over it. This President is making us
the laughing stock of the world. |
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