Saturday, July 3, 2021

Fight of the Ochoa, Del Rosario factions: Carpio spills tea in arbitration case vs China

Two factions led by then-Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa and then-Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario “fought from beginning to the end” during the Philippines’ legal battle to nullify China’s sweeping claims over the South China Sea, retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has revealed.

In his July 1 column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Carpio claimed Del Rosario’s memorandum to then-President Benigno Aquino III was “rewritten in Malacanang” to make it appear that the Foreign Affairs Secretary was opposed to filing the arbitration case.

“Secretary del Rosario swiftly found a way to give to President Aquino his original recommendation. President Aquino then convened a meeting of national leaders who, except for one, all voted to file the arbitration case,” Carpio said.

The former Supreme Court magistrate said the Ochoa and Del Rosario factions fought again when Paul Reichler, the foreign abogado hired by the government for the arbitration case, recommended amending the Statement of Claim to include Itu Aba as an issue that should be resolved by the arbitral tribunal.

Carpio said Reichler wanted to meet Aquino to discuss the issue but Ochoa told him the President was unavailable.

“When Paul Reichler submitted his draft Memorial to the Office of the President for approval, the two factions fought again. One faction wanted the 15 paragraphs in the Memorial explaining the status of Itu Aba to be deleted, while Secretary del Rosario insisted on the retention of the 15 paragraphs,” he recalled.

Carpio said Aquino eventually decided that the 15 paragraphs on Itu Aba will remain in the Memorial.

The former Supreme Court justice said his name was also excluded from the initial list of officials who would be going to The Hague in The Netherlands for the final hearing of the arbitral tribunal

“Secretary del Rosario wrote back that if I would not be included he would not be joining the delegation. Malacañang reinstated my name,” Carpio said.

He said Reichler told him that then-Solicitor General Florin Hilbay also told his team not to answer questions on Itu Aba even if it had been emailed by the court.

Carpio said he eventually prevailed on the issue and “Paul Reichler and his team took that as a green light to answer all the questions of the tribunal.”