THE International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has declined to act on the complaint filed by former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales against China President Xi Jinping and other Beijing officials for alleged crimes against humanity through environmental degradation in China’s artificial island building in the South China Sea (SCS) which also damaged marine life and deprived Filipino fishermen of access to traditional fishing grounds.
The court declined to act on the complaint, saying it has no jurisdiction over the alleged crimes for two reasons:
– China is not a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty which created the ICC, and is therefore not under ICC’s jurisdiction.
– The Philippines has no sovereignty over the disputed areas, as its territorial sea is limited to two miles from its shores. The alleged crimes may have taken place within the Philippines’ 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) but this is not Philippine territory.
The Philippines has certain rights to development of resources on the continental shelf beneath the EEZ. It has certain prerogatives in immigration, sanitary, and customs enforcement in the area. But the waters of the EEZ themselves are international waters.
This ICC ruling on jurisdiction should straighten out the thinking of many of our own officials today, who think such areas as Panatag or Scarborough Shoal and Reed Bank are parts of Philippine territory and we should, therefore, defend them from encroachment by other nations.
Panatag and Reed Bank are within our Exclusive Economic Zone. Our fishermen have a right to fish at Panatag as it is a traditional fishing ground for fishermen of many nations. We have a right to exploit Reed Bank’s oil and gas resources which we have decided to develop in partnership with China, with a 60-40 division of the expected returns on the venture.
The previous administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III renamed the Philippine EEZ to our west to “West Philippine Sea.” But let us not make the mistake of considering it Philippine territory, with such rights as controlling its use by foreign ships.
The International Criminal Court declined to act on the charges filed by Del Rosario and Morales, saying it has no jurisdiction as crimes charged took place in international territory. It was definitely a setback for Del Rosario and Morales but not a dismissal of the complaint, they pointed out. The ICC prosecutor, they said, welcomes “new facts and evidence to proceed with the case and we are providing them.” The problem is which court has such jurisdiction as the alleged crimes were deemed to have occurred in international territory?
The Philippine government itself had no part in the case filed by the two former Aquino administration officials, but our officials should keep in mind the basic point made by the court – that the 200-mile EEZ is not Philippine territory. Only the two miles of waters from the shores of our islands are.
