MANILA, Philippines – Several Chinese war ships passed through Tawi-Tawi in February without informing the Philippines, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has confirmed.
In light of this, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio today said the government must take the lead in making it an international rule for vessels to keep its automatic identification system (AIS) on when crossing waters within countries’ jurisdictions.
This, he explained, in the absence of such global policy.
“We should notify all of them, we can declare a policy, announce it to the world that, yes, we allow innocent passage under United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) because we are obliged to do that. But don’t turn off your AIS because you should be open about it,” Rappler quoted Carpio as saying.
