Aguilar, Sarah Jane R.

AB Pol Sci

To our Secretary General, to all my co-representatives of their respective countries, ladies and gentlemen, my warmest welcome and good morning!

It is with the great pleasure and privilege for me to raise and be heard in this assembly about the conflict arising between our friend country- Republic of the Philippines and my beloved country- People’s Republic of China. Yes, it is all about the territorial dispute specifically the Scarborough Shoal. With your permission ladies and gentlemen, I would like to discuss first about what is our basis of strongly claiming the said territory.

It is with our stand that it is based on historical facts and international laws. Since 200 BC, our people, Chinese fishermen have used the Spratly Island. In fact, there are famous Chinese books authored by Wan Zhen of the Eastern Wu State and published “The Three Kingdoms” period (220-280 AD) and work titled Guangzhou Ji (Chronicles of Guangzhou) authored by Pei Yuan of the Jin Dynasties described the Paracel and Spratly islands. The local government of the Jin Dynasties exercised jurisdictions over the islands by sending patrolling naval boats to the surrounding sea areas. In the Tang Dynasty the islands (Paracel and Spratly) were placed under the administration and authority of the Qiongzhou Perfecture which is now a Hainan Province. Supportedly, the archeologists have found Chinese made potteries, porcelains and other historical relics from the Southern, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties and later eras up to modern times on the South China Sea Islands. This clearly showed that ever since, these islands were parts of China’s territorial sea and maintained by us.

Yes, because the area is rich with oil and natural gas deposits and abundant fishing opportunities within the region and one of the busiest shipping routes in the world, there are many countries claiming this territorial body to be their part such as, Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, Europe, India and the Philippines. Unluckily, those countries failed.

In 1946, the America’s reminded the Philippines at its independence that the Spratly was not Philippine territory and because the Spratly’s were not part of the Philippines per the “1898 Treaty” Spain signed with America. But then, by the year 1971, Philippines announces claim to islands adjacent to its territory in the Spratly’s which they named “Kalayaan” which was incorporated into Palawan Province in 1972. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos announced the claims after Taiwanese troops attacked and shot at a Philippine Fishing boat on Itu Aba.

By the year 2009, ASEAN (Association of South-East Asia Nation) which the Philippines is an original member and the China agreed to a code of conduct, “The Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea”.

September 5, 2012, Philippine President Aquino promulgated Administrative Order No. 29, naming maritime areas on the Western side of the Philippine archipelago as the “West Philippine Sea”. The order declares that the Philippine exercises sovereign jurisdiction in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), an area declared by Presidential Decree No. 1599 of June 1978 to extend to a distance of two hundred nautical miles beyond and from the baseline from which the territorial sea is measured. The Philippine Baselines are defined by Republic Act No. 3046 as amended. As per respond by our country, China launched program to increase the number of monitoring group in the Scarborough Shoal, Paracel Islands, Spratly Islands and East China Sea which follows a national marine zooning program approved by the State Council during the previous year as a part of China’s 12th five year plan.

It was January 10, 2014 when my country imposes a “fishing permit” in the South China Sea over the objections of the United States, Philippines and Vietnam. Documented by March 30, The Republic of the Philippines invokes the compulsory settlement of dispute clause under the law of the Sea Convention by submitting a case to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hauge in its case against my country about the South China Sea claims.

By those incidences, it was clearly showed that the two country are both with its firm stand regarding the territory to be claimed with. But in our part, it was so sad to think that the United States responded to my country’s claim over the fishing grounds of the other nations by saying that “China has not offered any explanation or basis under International Law for these extensive maritime claims” in the year 2014. The American pledged support to the Philippines in its territorial conflicts. The ironic fact is that the United States is not a member of the United Nations Convention in the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). But they stood by claiming that peaceful surveillance activities and other military activities without permission in a country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is allowed under the convention. It was also testified by US Secretary Clinton, her support with the congressional approval of the Law of the Sea Convention which would strengthen US ability to support countries that oppose Chinese claims to certain islands in the area.

These conflict has caused for the boycott of our goods in the Philippines in the year 2012. Counter actions to these was the stricter regulations on our imports of Philippine bananas, as a shipload of bananas was then rejected in May. Aside from that, most of the Chinese travel agencies suspended tour to the Philippines. These suspension of all the tours was citing the Anti-Chinese sentiment in the country and for the safety of Chinese nationals. However, Filipinos organized protest near the Chinese consulate in Manila against Chinese policies in the Scarborough Shoal held on May 11. We then deployed policies near the Philippine embassy in Beijing. These resulted from fear of Chinese nationals to stay on the streets in Manila likewise as the Filipinos in Beijing. Aside from that, there was a cyber-hackers exchange among the two

specifically the websites of University of the Philippines and the China University Media Union website which both about this disputes.

All of these resulted into different perspectives, views and reactions from different countries in the world. As for a multilateral solution pushing by the Philippines, Malaysia and the United States are strongly in favor with it. While, we thank you Pakistan, and Russia for in favoring my country for a bilateral solution among claimant countries and opposed the involvement of other nations in the South China Sea disputes. However, India, Australia, United Kingdom, Taiwan and Vietnam expressed their reactions in resolving these conflicts based on international law as to maintain peace, stability, security and maritime safety in the East Sea and region.

And came to the point that this territorial conflicts had into the United Nation Arbitral Tribunal which from the Philippines filed case against us which was the first international filed case against China related to territorial dispute. With all of my heart, we thank you United Nations organization for giving us chance to defend our territorial claims by giving us time to submit evidences to support our claims. We will surely work on it as soon as possible to make our claims legal and so for the clarity of the maritime entitlements in the disputed waters.

In our part, we are asking the United States to maintain a neutral position on the issue. We pleases also the non-claimant Association of South-East Asia Nations (ASEAN) countries and countries outside the region that have adopted position to please not of getting involved into this issue. We hope for a fair investigation and fair decision of the International Tribunal in Laws of the Sea (ITLOS) for a peaceful resolution to maintain stability, security and harmonious relationships among nations especially between China and Philippines. Again, ladies and gentlemen, in behalf of the Republic and people of China, I am hoping for this issue be resolved the soonest time possible. May you all have a great stay with our home. Good morning!