THE Philippine panel zeroed in on the “baseless” nine-dash line claim of China over most of West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), showing as evidence Ming Dynasty-era maps to belie this, as the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal began hearings this week on the case filed Manila against Beijing.
Deputy Presidential Spokesman Abigail Valte, reporting on the proceedings on Day 1 of the tribunal’s hearings on the merits, said Solicitor General Florin Hilbay first outlined the sequence of arguments to be presented by the Philippine panel.
“The thrust of the presentation of the Philippine side today focused on the lack of basis for China’s historic claims over the nine-dash line,” Valte, who attended the hearing, said in an e-mail to Palace reporters on Wednesday.
She added that the government’s lead counsel, Paul Reichler, discussed “the nature of China’s historic rights claim and how these purported historic rights, supposedly derived under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea [Unclos], in fact, do not exist under the provisions of the convention.”
At the same hearing, Valte said Philippine counsel Andrew Loewenstein argued that “even assuming, for the sake of argument, that a claim of historic rights can exist after the Unclos, China has failed to satisfy the requirements to establish the claim, namely: a continuous exercise of exclusive control for a long period of time over the said area.”
“Loewenstein presented eight maps, the first of which dates back to the Ming Dynasty, to show that China’s territory did not include that which it claims now under the nine-dash line,” Valte reported.
She said Reichler questioned China’s assertion of exclusive rights over the areas covered by the nine-dash line, airing President Aquino’s earlier protestations in other forums, including the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Manila, that this has “deprived the Philippines of fishing and exploration activities.”
Valte said that during the initial hearings of the tribunal, Bernard Oxman also tackled the “unlawfulness of China’s claim to the South China Sea beyond its maritime entitlements under the Unclos and how it encroaches on the rights of coastal states like the Philippines.”