RENOWNED JOURNALIST Marites Vitug launched her book Rock Solid: How
the Philippines Won Its Maritime Case against China on July 24 at the New Rizal Library.

Published under the Ateneo University Press, Rock Solid tells of how the Philippines won the West Philippine Sea dispute against China. The final ruling that favored the Philippines was made by the Permanent Court of Arbitration on July 12, 2016.

Speakers present included Vice President Leni Robredo, Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, and former Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) secretary and ambassador to the United States Albert del Rosario. Former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales also attended the event.

According to Vitug, reading case documents from the DFA, the Philippine Embassy in Beijing, the Department of National Defense, and intelligence reports from the Philippine Navy are what piqued her interest for writing the book. She enumerated the reasons why the victory against China was “historic one,” calling it a landmark case.

“One, [the case was] the first to interpret the [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)] definitions of rocks, islands, and low tides, and elevation. Second, it’s the first case to be filed by a South China Sea claimant state against China. Third, it’s the first time the Philippines sued a country. And fourth, this is the first case to address the scope and application of the UNCLOS provision on the protection and preservation of the environment,” she explained.

Present challenges

Furthermore, the speakers also shed light on the current struggles for the Philippines’ sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea despite its rightful claim, which comes in light of instances of China’s encroachment in the Scarborough and President Duterte’s inclination towards close relations with China.

“I never expected that our own President would denounce publicly that we’re setting aside the ruling,” Carpio expressed. He also said that the enforcing the ruling is “the only viable way of protecting and preserving our sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea.”

In her keynote speech, Robredo mentioned the struggles of the Filipino fishermen who are “threatened regularly” by Chinese officials and whose livelihood depends on Philippine waters.

“[We hope] that our government will finally fight for our people’s rights and our sovereignty, that the lives and livelihood of fishermen that depend on Scarborough Shoal’s fishing grounds will finally be protected,” Robredo said.

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