MANILA (UPDATED WITH VIDEO)- Whoever succeeds President Benigno Aquino III should uphold the country’s claims against China over territories in the West Philippine Sea or end up a laughingstock, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said.
Carpio said while there is no legal impediment to a “conciliatory” president withdrawing the case the country has filed against China before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, “the consequences will be horrible for us.”
“You lose credibility, pagtatawanan tayo (we will be a laughingstock). Nobody will help us anymore. Baka sabihin nila, ‘Tutulungan namin tapos aatras kayo (They might say, ‘We help you and then you back out’).’ That will be catastrophic,” he said in an interview after a forum in which he discussed the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s ruling assuming jurisdiction over the country’s case against China.