By Roy Mabasa

As leaders of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gather in Thailand for the 35th Summit, former foreign affairs secretary Albert Del Rosario has called on member states to make the award rendered by the United Nations-backed Arbitral Tribunal in The Hague regarding the South China Sea “an integral part of a binding Code of Conduct (COC).”

“The award in the South China Sea Arbitration should be an integral part of a binding COC. Our region cannot promote the rule of law while ignoring the law as it stands. ASEAN Member States (except for Cambodia, which is an UNCLOS signatory) are State Parties to UNCLOS. As such, they should recognize that the Award rendered by an UNCLOS Tribunal is a valid and binding judgment under international law,” Del Rosario said in a statement emailed to the Manila Bulletin Thursday night.

UNCLOS stands for the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, an international agreement that resulted from the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, which took place between 1973 and 1982.

In negotiating the COC, Del Rosario urged the ASEAN to stress that the South China Sea is “nobody’s backyard or exclusive preserve,” adding that failure to do so would severely narrow the regional bloc’s options and make it over-dependent on a single player.

To further ensure enduring peace and prosperity in the region, the former Philippine top diplomat sees the need to continuously engage external powers such as China, the United States, Japan, India, Australia and Europe.

Del Rosario argued that for the South China Sea code to work, China, in particular, should participate in the COC in “good faith.”

“This point needs to be stated because of China’s record of duplicitous behavior: that is, claiming to abide by an agreement but doing otherwise on the ground,” he said, in obvious reference to Beijing’s “massive and illegal land reclamation and artificial island-building in the South China Sea.”

Moreover, the former foreign affairs secretary reminded the ASEAN that the Award is an authoritative statement by an UNCLOS Tribunal of the international law applicable in the South China Sea and should guide ASEAN in addressing the sea dispute.

“The Award… is of paramount importance to the Philippines as the country which successfully initiated the case to protect its rights and entitlements in the South China Sea. It is also immensely valuable to the ASEAN Member States which border the South China Sea because, by upholding UNCLOS, it serves to protect their rights and entitlements under international law,” he said.

On the part of the Philippines, Del Rosario said the Philippines should also consistently take the rightful position of rejecting any COC that does not serve to make the Award an integral part of it.

On July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration has ruled in favor of a Philippine petition to invalidate China’s outrageous nine-dash-line claim in the South China Sea. However, Beijing refused to recognize the international court’s decision.

President Rodrigo Duterte is among the ASEAN leaders currently participating in the annual meet that is taking place in Nonthaburi outside the capital of Bangkok from October 31 to November 4, 2019.