By Adolfo Quizon Paglinawan

 

If the press release of the Stratbase Institute and its president Victor Andres “Dindo” Manhit, is to be believed, the ruling announced nine years ago on the 2013 Philippine submissions to arbitration against China dealing with South China Sea issues, was a “victory”.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

The lie is so pernicious, it is hurting the Philippines’ best interests.

The only victory it serves is from the perspective of its coinciding with the American pivot, the plan announced in 2009 by Barack Obama to shift sixty per cent of the military presence of the United States to the Asia-Pacific as a counterpoise to China.

That vicious objective, preserving the status of the white anglo-saxon protestants (WASPs) as the world’s dominant hegemon, was achieved through a single paragraph 278 inserted into the 2016 Arbitral Award – rendering the nine-dash line, descriptive of China’s overwhelming claims over the South China Sea, as having no legal basis.

Never mind the preposterous context of the provision as referring only insofar as one treaty is concerned, the UN Convention on the Laws of the Seas, of which the United States is not even a member.

Never mind if the jurisdiction of UNCLOS is only for sovereign rights in coastal waters and not sovereignty over land; never mind if that treaty is not the embodiment of the entire international law as it applies only to maritime entitlements effective only as late as 1994, if it allows the asymmetry to shift the lawfare in favor of America’s rules-based order supplanting international law.

Never mind if the Arbitral Award itself qualifies the context within which that sweeping ruling is to be read and understood. Paragraph 272 preceding 278 says:

“Finally, because the Tribunal considers the question of historic rights with respect to maritime areas to be entirely distinct from that of historic rights to land, the Tribunal considers it opportune to note that certain claims remain unaffected by this decision.

In particular, the Tribunal emphasizes that nothing in this Award should be understood to comment in any way on China’s historic claim to the islands of the South China Sea.”

Never mind, if in fact the Arbitral Award, by virtue of this paragraph, even expanded China’s options under UNCLOS, as it ends with:

Never mind, if in fact the Arbitral Award, by virtue of this paragraph, even expanded China’s options under UNCLOS, as it ends with:

What the convention expressed in layman’s terms is UNCLOS does not negate, nor reject China’s historic titles, nor does it preclude China from making claims under UNCLOS on matters of maritime rights.

Ladies and gentlemen, from this promontory or protuberance, China cured the ambiguity as to who has de jure sovereignty over Bajo de Masinloc, by submitting an official statement and accompanying charts to the United Nations, last December 2024, outlining the baselines of its territorial sea around Scarborough Shoal, which China calls Huangyan Dao, in accordance not with its historic rights, but the requirements of UNCLOS.

When published by the UN in its official website, this cements China’s de facto sovereignty over the feature it acquired, after the Philippines abandoned to the effective control of China after the 2012 Scarborough standoff.

So how can the Arbitral Award, by the widest stretch of my imagination even be considered a victory? How can we reconcile our forever loss of a claimed territory to the Stratbase press release that “landmark ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that invalidated Beijing’s massive claims in the South China Sea,” when what is true in fact is that it has bolstered China’s position?

What is the reason therefore that Manhit, the Stratbase president is lying to his teeth?

I can only go back to recent history for the explanation.

Historical factcheck

The Philippine started occupation of some features of the Spratly Islands in 1971, formalizing it in Presidential Decree 1596 that President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos signed in 1978 as a polygon of an archipelago within a larger Spratly archipelago.

China has consistently rejected the 1978 Philippines’ claim to the Kalayaan Islands, viewing them as part of its own territory established though a statutory construction of its sovereignty over the islands and surrounding waters, acquired through historic titles, and specifically after receiving its return of its entirety by Japan to China after World War II.

China’s response has included diplomatic protests, military presence, and civilian law enforcement.

The Declaration of Conduct of 2002, however, gave the Philippines a breathing space as it somewhat declared a “status quo ante” to actual positions claimant states have established as of its signing, as mandated by the following provision:

“The Parties undertake to exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability including, among others, refraining from action of inhabiting on the presently uninhabited islands, reefs, shoals, cays, and other features and to handle their differences in a constructive manner.”

Further, it specified the acceptable conduct

“The Parties concerned undertake to resolve their territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means, without resorting to the threat or use of force, through friendly consultations and negotiations by sovereign states directly concerned, in accordance with universally recognized principles of international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.”

Three years after, in 2005, the Philippine government awarded a contract to Forum Energy, a UK-based oil and gas company, to conduct seismic studies in the Sampaguita gas field located inside Reed Bank.

Reed Bank lies west of Palawan Island in what the Philippines claim as part of its exclusive economic zone but is disputed by five other coastal parties.

That survey indicated the presence of 3.4 trillion cubic feet of gas and thus a potentially significant source of income for the Philippine government.

In February 2010, Manila extended the contract.

Subsequently Forum Energy chartered the survey ship Veritas Voyager to begin work to identify locations for appraisal wells to be sunk. On March 2, 2011, two Chinese patrol boats approached the survey ship MV Veritas Voyager near Reed Bank forcing it to withdraw.

Let’s fast forward. Who owns Forum Energy?

Forum Energy is primarily owned by PXP Energy Corporation, which holds a controlling interest of 79.35% in Forum Energy Limited.

Who owns PXP?

PXP Energy Corporation is primarily owned by Philex Mining Corporation, a major Philippine mining company. PXP Energy also has a significant ownership stake held by First Pacific Company Limited.

What is First Pacific?

First Pacific Company Limited is a Hongkong-based investment management and holding company with operations located in Asia involving telecommunications, consumer food products and infrastructure with current and non-current assets, are valued at USD 28.67 billion as of December 2024.

Its chairman is Anthoni Salim, and its managing director and CEO is Manny Pangilinan.

In the Philippines, the conglomerate is represented in Metro Pacific Investment Corporation, Philippines Long Distance Telephone, Philex Mining Corporation, and Roxas Holdings Inc.

Ambassador Rigoberto Tiglao, writing for the Manila Times, explains it in simpler terms:

“When you turn on light, chances are, you’ll be making money for a Salim firm, the ultimate parent company now of Meralco. When you use your cell phone, you’ll likely be paying Salim-controlled mobile phone companies—Smart and Sun, which together has 2/3 of the market. If you live in the western part of greater Manila, in any of its 17 cities and towns, the water you pay for is from his Maynilad Water Services, the country’s biggest water concession.

“When you travel on the expressways, part of the toll you’ll pay goes to Salim, through his Manila North Tollways and Cavitex, which together make up the country’s largest tollway operator that runs 64 percent of the country’s toll roads.

“If you get sick (and if you can afford it, that is), you’d be probably treated in one of his six hospitals, which include the most venerable ones such as Cardinal Santos and the Makati Medical Center, and the newest, Asian Hospital in Alabang.

“And if you’re reading either two of the country’s biggest newspapers, Philippine Star and Philippine Daily Inquirer or even the has-been business paper BusinessWorld, or if you’re watching TV-5, Salim’s executives control those too.”

That is just the tip of the iceberg.

The next question is who heads of Stratbase Institute?

Its registered co-chairman are the late Albert del Rosario, now deceased, and Manny Pangilinan who has survived him.

The complete name of Stratbase suffixes Albert del Rosario Institute, or Stratbase ADRI. In addition, it is the local agent of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a key lobbyist in Washington DC for the US military industrial complex.

Can we therefore say, that the bottomline here of Stratbase that confluences with American proxy interests in the Philippines, is really all about oil and mammon?

My parting shot is – Ask yourselves, ladies and gentlemen, if we could include the business profits from “war” in that context?

To be continued.

 

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