THE political winds have indeed changed direction.

On the same day that China-friendly statement of this year’s chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, President Rodrigo Duterte, was released to media, the Philippine and Chinese flags were seen raised in a Chinese warship, Chang Chun (DDG 150) that docked in a Davao city pier.

These developments may cause some to be confused on the issues on South China Sea where we are contesting the almost all-encompassing claim of China. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have also overlapping claims with China in the area.

The 264-page E-book, Philippine Sovereign Rights and Jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea: The South China Sea Dispute by Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio is good reading to remind the public of the basic issue
of the South China Sea dispute. The E-book will be launched on May 4 Thursday at 5 p.m. at Turf Room of the Manila Polo Club in Makati.

The E-book is a collation of over 140 lectures and speeches of Justice Carpio on the South China Sea dispute which were delivered in fora in the Philippines and abroad.

In many of his speeches, Carpio has mentioned converting Spratlys to International Marine Peace Park.

He elaborates on it on page 224.

Excerpts : “The eggs and larvae of fish that spawn in the Spratlys are carried by currents to the coasts of China, Vietnam, Luzon, Palawan, Malaysia, Brunei, Natuna Islands, as well as the Sulu Sea. The Spratlys are the breeding ground of fish in the South China Sea.

Of the total world annual fish catch, 12 percent comes from the South China Sea, valued at US$21.8 billion. The South China Sea has 3,365 species in 263 families of fish. The South China Sea is one of the top five most productive fishing zones in the world in terms of total annual fish catch. Twelve countries with two billion people border the South China Sea. A large number of the coastal population of these countries depend on fish from the South China Sea for their protein.

To ensure that the Spratlys will remain the South China Sea’s breeding ground where fish spawn, Dr. John W. McManus has proposed that the Spratlys be declared an international marine peace park. This is a win-win solution to the territorial dispute in the Spratlys (the Arbitral Tribunal’s Award does not resolve the territorial dispute). This is particularly favorable to China which takes fifty percent (and growing) of the annual fish catch in the South China Sea. All claimant states shall suspend for 100 years their territorial claims and declare all LTEs and high-tide features in the Spratlys, and an area of 3 NM around each feature, as an international marine peace park for the benefit of all coastal states in the South China Sea.

http://www.malaya.com.ph/business-news/opinion/justice-carpio%E2%80%99s-e-book-south-china-sea-dispute