FAJARDO, MICHELLE B.

October 16, 2018

Public International Law – Section 2 Atty. Wayne Tugadi
Reflection Paper

The case of Philippines versus China that was debated over last October 12 (Friday),
centered on the disputed territory that is the South China Sea. The class was divided in to three
groups. The first group was for the Philippines, the second group pro-China and the third set of
students were to become the adjudicators in the debate. Their main task was to basically ask
questions regarding the topic and contentions of both team. I was assigned to the China team,
so naturally, my main task was to defend China’s claim in the South China Sea territory and
cross-examine contentions thrown by the Philippines team against China.

The first contention that I had in mind, although somewhat naïve, was that South China
Sea is after all named after China. From there, one would think that that particular body of
water would belong to China’s territory since it is internationally called as such. It is written in
maps as such, so basically, it has that kind of acknowledgement, it is called South “China” Sea,
but that was just my initial thought on the matter. On a more serious note, I would have to
agree with experts that the issue on the South China Sea dispute is one that should not be
taken lightly. Wars could happen at the snap of a finger, if say, China or any one of the claimant
states becomes haughty and decided that it does not want to pursue a diplomatic way of
resolving this issue it could lead to an all-out war. That is why the South China Sea dispute
should be tread and analyzed carefully, open-mindedly and without prejudice especially for the
leaders of the respective claimant states.

Apart from the Philippines and China, there are three other states that have claimed
parts of the disputed territory, namely, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei. If we try to look at it at a
different perspective it would seem like a bunch of developing states ganging up against a rising
superpower - China. Furthermore, this would look like a “United States sponsored attack” on
China, especially on the part of the Philippines, since it is general knowledge that the United
States had been sponsoring the Philippines since the aftermath of the Second World War, and
since the Philippines does not have the military capacity to defend its claim over the South
China Sea it would naturally join the bandwagon of a superpower, in this case it is the United
States. In my opinion, as a Filipino and Asian, the United States should stop putting itself in the
middle of every dispute in the international arena, its status as the world police has ended and
most countries especially in the East do not want the United States to meddle with their affairs.
This is one of those affairs in which the United States needs to keep its hands off.

In conclusion, I believe that the Philippines, along with the other claimant states should
focus on bilateral or multilateral talks with each other through the ‘ASEAN way’, a platform
where it is composed of all the claimant states negotiating with each other so that all of the
contentions that they have will be heard in a matter that is suitable for them. In this way, China
will not feel antagonized and the matter will be solved peacefully thus avoiding the peril of war.