Gloves are off! Carpio slams Duterte’s ‘dumb,’ ‘illegal’ West PH Sea policies

Retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio is no longer holding back on his criticism of President Rodrigo Duterte after being the subject of the Chief Executive’s tirades several times.

In his May 6 column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Carpio lambasted Duterte’s policies in the West Philippine Sea for being “reckless, ill-informed and irresponsible.” He said the President’s 2016 declaration that he will set aside the arbitral ruling invalidating China’s sweeping claims over the South China Sea was “illegal and unconstitutional.”

The former Supreme Court magistrate also slammed Duterte for ordering the Philippine Navy to limit its patrols to the country’s territorial waters instead of including the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) which China is claiming as its own.

Carpio added that the verbal fishing agreement that Duterte entered into with Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2019, which allowed Chinese fishermen to fish in the Philippines’ EEZ is illegal.

“Filipinos fish in the WPS with small wooden boats fitted with outriggers, while the Chinese, who have the largest fishing fleet in the world, fish with huge modern trawlers. We now import galunggong from China, the same galunggong Chinese fishermen take in the WPS. This verbal fishing agreement is not only unconstitutional, it is also plain dumb,” he said.

Carpio said Duterte’s statement that China is in possession of the West Philippine Sea is “grossly factually incorrect” because China is in possession of only eight geologic features in the Spratlys plus Scarborough Shoal.

“To concede that China is in possession of the WPS is not only grossly irresponsible, it is also clearly illegal because it is in derogation of our sovereign rights in the WPS (West Philippine Sea),” he said.

Carpio also accused Duterte of betraying national interest by saying in his 2019 State of the Nation Address (SONA) that he was “inutile” when it comes to defending the West Philippine Sea.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)