MANILA, Philippines鈥擱etired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio is proposing a national database to keep track of the developments in the West Philippine Sea for the next generation of Filipinos.
At an online forum, he described the West Philippine Sea dispute as an 鈥渋ntergenerational struggle.鈥�
鈥淭his will not be solved in our generation. This will probably be solved in succeeding generations,鈥� Carpio said.
The South China Sea is one of the world鈥檚 busiest shipping routes and is subject to overlapping territorial disputes for decades. The claimants involve the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan.
The Philippine claims refer to the West Philippine Sea. However, China claims ownership of nearly the entire South China Sea and has aggressively built military outposts on artificial islands.
In recent years, it has also emerged as a flashpoint of US-China rivalry.
In 2016, the international tribunal in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines in a maritime dispute, ruling that China鈥檚 massive claims in the South China Sea have no basis.
The ruling was swept under the rug when President Rodrigo Duterte came to power.
Carpio said a 鈥済ood database鈥� would educate the Filipino youth, who would continue the struggle to defend the West Philippine Sea.
鈥淲e must have a very good database of our arguments and all that we have done so far in terms of historical, legal, environmental research must be put in one place so that this can be accessed by future generations,鈥� he said.
鈥淚f the present generation, we, educate our youth that the sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea belongs to the Filipinos then they will continue the struggle,鈥� Carpio said.
The retired justice said that the Chinese government has taught its citizens that the South China Sea belongs to them.
鈥淚t鈥檚 shameful for the Chinese people to claim that they own the South China Sea because it鈥檚 totally false,鈥� he said.
That is why he said it was important that Filipinos must be educated 鈥渢o convince the Chinese to give up these ridiculous claims.鈥�