UN completes arbitration body to tackle Manila's maritime case vs China

Philippines News Agency

MANILA – The Philippines' case against China took another step forward after a United Nations arbitration body named the last three judges in the five-man tribunal that will hear Manila’s complaint over Beijing's "excessive" claim to the South China Sea.

"We are hoping that this case that we filed with the tribunal will proceed as soon as possible," Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez told a press briefing Thursday.

Manila initiated an arbitration process under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS on January 21, seeking to declare "illegal" a China claim that covers nearly the entire resource-rich waters of the South China Sea.

China has resisted the Philippines' move to let a UN body intervene in the disputes.

China, Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia have overlapping claims on the islands, shoals and reefs in the South China Sea, where undersea gas deposits have been discovered in several areas. International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) President Shunji Yanai on April 24 transmitted a letter to Philippine Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza, head of the Philippine legal team on the arbitration case, informing Manila of the appointment of the final three judges who will consider the matter.

They are: Jean-Pierre Cot (France), Chris Pinto (Sri Lanka) and Alfred Soons (The Netherlands.)

Yanai earlier appointed Stanislaw Pawlak (Poland) as the second member of the tribunal, to represent China in the proceedings. The Philippines, on the other hand, nominated Rudiger Wolfrum (Germany) to the tribunal.

Hernandez said the five-member arbitral tribunal will first determine if it has jurisdiction over the Philippine case before an actual hearing takes place.

The Philippine government, he said, is "very confident" that the case will be taken up by the tribunal and that the country will be awarded its maritime entitlements in the South China Sea.
“The nine-dash claim of China has no validity as far as the international law, particularly the UNCLOS, is concerned” Hernandez said.

UNCLOS is a 1982 accord by 163 countries that aims to govern the use of offshore areas and sets territorial limits of coastal states. The Philippines and China are both signatories to the treaty.

It also allows member-states to seek legal remedy on territorial disputes through mediation.
Manila insisted that arbitration is “a peaceful and durable form of dispute settlement pursuant to international law.”

China, which frowns upon efforts to involve a third party in the disputes, prefers to negotiate one on one with other claimants which would give it advantage because of its sheer size compared to rival claimants which are smaller and have less military force.