The Philippines has identified two areas in the crowded waterway suitable for joint exploration and the two countries are seeking ways to tackle the diplomatic and legal headaches of jointly exploring in the waters, but without addressing the issue of sovereignty.
Reed Bank is claimed by both sides, but international law says it falls within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Philippines. China says it falls within the so-called nine-dash line on maps recording its historic rights in the area.
Philippines identifies sites in South China Sea for potential joint exploration with China
Antonio Carpio, the acting top judge of the Supreme Court, said it was legal for the Philippines’ energy ministry to talk to state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) as a possible subcontractor.
“There’s no problem as long as CNOOC recognises that that is our exclusive economic zone,” he told news channel ANC. “But that is the problem, because CNOOC will not recognise [Philippine jurisdiction].”
Carpio was speaking as an expert on international law and staunch advocate for the Philippines to assert its maritime sovereignty claims.
He was among the lawyers involved in the Philippines’ legal challenge against China, which Manila took to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in 2013.
China, Philippines talks silent on militarisation of South China Sea
The tribunal invalidated China’s nine-dash line in its 2016 ruling, making clear that Reed Bank fell within the Philippines’ EEZ, and that Manila had sovereign rights to resources there.
China is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea but it does not recognise The Hague ruling.
“The stumbling block has always been the insistence of China that we recognise their sovereign rights,” Carpio said.