China does not have the West Philippine Sea (WPS), said Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio.

In a statement to President Rodrigo Duterte’s fourth State of the Nation Address Monday, the senior judge said China had seven characteristics in the Spratlys plus Scarborough Shoal. He added that China also confiscated Sandy Cay from the Philippines during the Duterte administration.

But even when taken together, the region of these geological characteristics and their territorial seas, if any, is less than 7 percent of the West Philippine Sea.

Foreign maritime forces (US, UK, France, Australia, Japan, and Canada) continually sail and perform naval exercises in the South China Sea, including the WPS, showing that China is not in possession of the WPS.

The chief executive also said not one of the Marines will come back alive if he sent them to drive out foreign fishermen.

The current administration has been criticized for shelving a 2016 international court victory that invalidated China’s nine-dash-line claim to the South China Sea in search of warmer ties with Beijing.

Duterte also came under fire for a verbal agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping allegedly enabling the Chinese to fish within the EEZ of the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Carpio, a vocal advocate for the maritime claims of the Philippines, said traditional fishing applies only to the territorial sea and archipelagic waters.

There is no traditional EEZ fishing. That is very evident in the July 12, 2016, arbitral award. Reed Bank is a member of the Philippine EEZ. In Reed Bank, there can be no traditional fishing.

Traditional fishing is artisanal fishing using tiny, easy fishing vessels like Filipino fishermen’s wooden ships with outriggers. The Chinese steel-hulled trawlers can’t qualify for traditional fishing.