Acting Chief Justice Antonio T. Carpio has long been vocal in his opposition to the Duterte administration’s inaction on the 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague rejecting China’s claim to virtually all of the South China Sea and upholding the Philippines’ right to reefs, shoals, and banks within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Philippines. On the recent oil exploration agreement between China and the Philippines, however, Justice Carpio came out last Sunday in support of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed during the recent state visit of China President Xi Jinping. The MOU calls for the setting up of a Joint Steering Committee and Working Group to be led by the two countries’ ministries of foreign affairs and energy. The MOU provides: “This Memorandum of Understanding does not create rights or obligations under international or domestic law.”

Our rights are assured in oil exploration agreement. (2018, November 28). Manila Bulletin, p. 10.