MDT may already be invoked, law professors say

PROFESSORS at the San Beda University Graduate School of Law said the Philippines should now invoke its Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) with the United States after the Chinese coast guard reportedly rammed, boarded, and used machetes and axes to damage two Philippine navy boats in a chaotic faceoff that injured Filipino navy personnel at Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea.

This frame grab from handout video taken on June 17, 2024 and released by the Armed Forces of the Philippines Public Affairs Office on June 19 shows China coast guard personnel appearing to wield bladed weapons during an incident off Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea. The Philippine military said on June 19 the Chinese coast guard rammed and boarded Filipino navy boats in a violent confrontation in the South China Sea this week in which a Filipino sailor lost a thumb. China defended its actions, with its foreign ministry saying on Wednesday that “no direct measures” were taken against Filipino personnel. Handout / ARMED FORCES OF THE PHILIPPINES-PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE / AFP 

“We respectfully submit that the conditions that trigger the application of treaty provisions, particularly those embodied in Articles IV and V of the Mutual Defense Treaty, have been fulfilled,” the San Beda law professors said in a statement issued on Monday.

The academicians said they were not calling for the “commencement of armed hostilities” but urging the US to honor its commitment under the MDT and subsequent agreements pursuant to it to counter the aggression of China.

“Inaction on the part of the United States may lead Filipinos to conclude that the United States is either unwilling or unable to abide by its treaty commitments,” the San Beda law professors said.

They called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to bring the matter to the attention of the United Nations Security Council and to invoke its action in accordance with the MDT.

The San Beda law professors said China had intensified its aggression in the West Philippine Sea.

“Not only has it evicted our fisherfolk from their traditional fishing grounds…interfered with resupply missions to our uniformed men assigned to outposts within our Exclusive Economic Zone… blockaded zones of sea over which the Philippines has sovereign rights by international law…rammed fishing vessels and seacraft of the Philippine Coastguard, bombarded Filipino fishermen’s boats and even government vessels with water cannons and used blinding laser beaks beams for purposes of harassment and intimidation,” they said.

They also noted the June 17 incident in Ayungin Shoal recorded in a video clip that showed Chinese armed personnel aboard a Chinese vessel using bladed weapons against the inflatable craft of the Philippines.

“While official Chinese pronouncements have always faulted the Philippines, its government and its people with ‘provocation,’ all that Filipino fisherfolk, our naval forces and our Coast Guard have done is to assert those rights adjudged to be rightly ours by the Arbitral Award rendered on July 12, 2016, resolving the questions submitted to it for resolution by the Republic of the Philippines under the terms of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to which both the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China are parties,” the San Beda professors said.

The government has declared that it has no plan to invoke its MDT with the US over the latest incident.