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CALLS FOR JOINT PATROLS TO CONTINUE

Justice Carpio: Only US can protect PHL's EEZ from Chinese poachers


The Philippines should keep its joint patrol with the United States to protect its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), particularly from Chinese poachers, Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said Tuesday.

"There is only one power on Earth that can stop the Chinese from poaching in our EEZ. That is the US," said Carpio amid President Rodrigo Duterte's strong opposition to joint patrols and anti-US rhetoric.

Duterte had called for a stop in joint patrols in the West Philippine Sea, saying he does not want "trouble." He said he wants military patrols to be limited to the country's 12-mile territorial sea.

But according to Carpio, the Constitution mandates the military to patrol the country's 200-mile exclusive economic zone and not just the 12-mile territorial sea.

"The Constitution says the State shall protect its EEZ. The  Philippines must protect its EEZ, that's the mandate  of the Constitution," Carpio said.

Article XII, Section 2 of the Constitution directs the State to "protect the nation's marine wealth in its archipelagic waters, territorial sea, and exclusive economic zone, and reserve its use and enjoyment exclusively to Filipino citizens."

"The only way to protect that is to send patrol ships there because if a foreign fishing vessel will poach on our waters in the EEZ, the only way we can stop them is to patrol there," Carpio said.

The Spratly Islands, a chain of islands and islets believed to rich in oil and minerals deposits, is outside the country's territorial sea but is within and even extends beyond the country's EEZ, and is being claimed in part or in whole by the Philippines, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan.

The Malampaya deep water gas-to-power project is also outside the country's territorial sea as it is located 43 miles from mainland Palawan.

Carpio said the Philippines stands to lose billions of pesos "if anyone can attack our facility in Malampaya."

"It will endanger our energy security in Luzon and we're going to lose a lot of fish and that will amount to billions of pesos," Carpio said.

Carpio was a party to the case lodged by the Philippines before a United Nations arbitral court against China's nine-dash line claim over the South China Sea.

In a ruling last July, the court dismissed China's excessive claim and upheld Philippines 200-mile EEZ under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Carpio was in Fort Bonifacio for the closing ceremony of this year's Amphibious Landing Exercise or Phiblex between Filipino and US troops. —KBK, GMA News

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