China’s aggressive reclamation over the West Philippine Sea may result in a national crisis for the Philippines, Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said.
In a lecture on Thursday, Carpio explained that China’s efforts, intended to give teeth to its “nine-dashed line” claim over nearly the entirety of the South China Sea, have “grave implications that will affect the Philippines’ security, in national, food, and energy aspects.”
“The Philippines loses about 80 percent of its exclusive economic zone facing the West Philippine Sea, including part of the Malampaya gas field,” he said. “China’s nine-dashed lines claim encloses 85.7 percent of the entire South China Sea. This is equivalent to 3 million square kilometers out of 3.5 million square kilometers surface area.”
He added: “China will really enforce the 9-dashed line on the Philippines very soon. We will be left without, we will lose 80 percent [of our territories there]. Our traditional fishing area is Scarborough Shoal and we’ll lose that. Spratlys is the breeding ground of the fish we eat… We lose 40 percent of our fish source.”