MANILA can file another case against Beijing before a United Nations tribunal for threatening war against the Philippines over the dispute in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said on Saturday.

In a statement, Carpio said the Philippine government can run to the UN tribunal under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) to protect Philippine territory.

“The threat of China to go to war against the Philippines if the Philippines extracts oil and gas in the Reed Bank, or in any area within Philippine EEZ (exclusive economic zone) in the West Philippine Sea, is a gross violation of the United Nations Charter, Unclos, and the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia to which China and the Philippines are parties,” Carpio said.

“As a nation that under its Constitution has renounced war as an instrument of national policy, the Philippines’ recourse is to bring China’s threat of war to another Unclos arbitral tribunal, to secure an order directing China to comply with the ruling of the Unclos arbitral tribunal that declared the Reed Bank part of Philippine EEZ,” he added.

http://www.manilatimes.net/ph-can-sue-china-war-threat/328343/