PHA LAW THAT COURTS TROUBLE
By:MSRS
The Maritime Zone Act of the Philippines is a disaster waiting to happen. How? Well, basically, the law turns into domestic law the EEZ claims of the Philippines, disregarding that intersects with maritime claims of other parties in the South China Sea conflict, namely Viet Nam, Malaysia, China (Beijing + Taipei). It just put into domestic law provisions of UNCLOS and the 2016 South China Sea Arbitration decision, by including the latter, it actually defeats the law in so many ways (more on this)!
What is interesting about this law is Section 15. It says that any violation of the Maritime Zone Act will be subject to an ADMINISTRATIVE FINE of 600K USD - 1M USD.
All the claimants in the South China Sea are already violating the provisions of this act. Yup. For example, all of the claimants have artificial structures WITHIN the maritime zone indicated here. And the Philippines is claiming jurisdiction in establishing them. So will the Philippines impose an administrative fine on each of them?The question is: Who will be the agency that will impose the administrative fine? How will the Philipines enforce the fine????! Trade sanctions? Seizure of state properties in the Philippines? How will you impose a fine without any retaliatory actions from the target state??? That is just impossible. And worse, it is impossible to do without the Philippines suffering in the end. Now you see why this is courting trouble?
What this law does is to tie the hands of the EXECUTIVE to pursue hawkish policy. In fact, it now makes maritime diplomacy harder to do because of this law. What if the EXECUTIVE doesn't impose a fine for a supposed violation of the act?
By:MSRS
The Maritime Zone Act of the Philippines is a disaster waiting to happen. How? Well, basically, the law turns into domestic law the EEZ claims of the Philippines, disregarding that intersects with maritime claims of other parties in the South China Sea conflict, namely Viet Nam, Malaysia, China (Beijing + Taipei). It just put into domestic law provisions of UNCLOS and the 2016 South China Sea Arbitration decision, by including the latter, it actually defeats the law in so many ways (more on this)!
What is interesting about this law is Section 15. It says that any violation of the Maritime Zone Act will be subject to an ADMINISTRATIVE FINE of 600K USD - 1M USD.
All the claimants in the South China Sea are already violating the provisions of this act. Yup. For example, all of the claimants have artificial structures WITHIN the maritime zone indicated here. And the Philippines is claiming jurisdiction in establishing them. So will the Philippines impose an administrative fine on each of them?The question is: Who will be the agency that will impose the administrative fine? How will the Philipines enforce the fine????! Trade sanctions? Seizure of state properties in the Philippines? How will you impose a fine without any retaliatory actions from the target state??? That is just impossible. And worse, it is impossible to do without the Philippines suffering in the end. Now you see why this is courting trouble?
What this law does is to tie the hands of the EXECUTIVE to pursue hawkish policy. In fact, it now makes maritime diplomacy harder to do because of this law. What if the EXECUTIVE doesn't impose a fine for a supposed violation of the act?