MAY FLOR P.

RUIZ March 21, 2014

II A ADR: Judge Humiding



1. The basis of the Philippines in going for Arbitration is the 1982 UNCLOS which
took effect of 1994, it governs the conflicting maritime claims in the south China
Sea. Philippines and China have ratified UNCLOS. UNCLOS codified the
customary international law of the sea and adopted a compulsory dis0pute
settlement mechanism to insure that there is a final authoritative body to interpret
and apply its provisions. Under the UNCLOS, every coastal state is entitled as a
matter of international law to a 200 nautical miles drawn from the baselines on
continental land or island. This legal maritime entitlement is one of the most
important reasons why developing coastal states approved UNCLOS.

In this present case, the claim of China based on its alleged historical right over
the disputed area are against the UNCLOS provisions on coastal states right to
200 nm EEZ. On the other hand, the claim of China that the filing of Philippines in
ITLOS is premature because they must come to an agreement without going to
arbitration first is countered by the Philippines that as provided in UNCLOS that
incase the parties did not reach any on the dispute on how to settle their
disputes, then arbitration will govern the dispute. There is arbitration because of
the Philippines agree with the offer of China of joint development of the disputed
areas. In the said offer, China and Philippines will jointly develop the EEZ of the
Philippines but EEZ of China will be exclusive only to them. Philippines did not
agree because this is violation of the Philippine Constitution because such
acceptance of the offer will mean the acceptance of the indisputable sovereignty
of China.






2. The refusal of China for arbitration will affect the economy, tourism, and OFW
because the China becomes more aggressive in using its military personnel so
that the Philippines cannot exploit its own exclusive economic zone. This means
that Philippine investors venturing in the said disputed areas will be backing out
because of the military presence of China. The tourism will be affected also
because this might be a bad publicity throughout the world. And OFW might
experience such oppression especially those in Chinese Territories. On the other
hand, China might experience displeasure of the international legal communities
because of not abiding power of the UN because UN cannot imposed sanctions
to China aside from the displeasure from other signatories.