Beginning with a rigorous fact check, the forum provides an insightful review of the invalidation of China’s historical and legal claims on sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea. Keynote speaker Justice Antonio T. Carpio and a panel of experts on the territorial dispute between the Philippines and China — Renato Cruz de Castro, Jay Batongbacal, and Richard Heydarian — will analyze the geopolitical and economic implications of China’s increasingly aggressive presence in the West Philippine Sea. They will also assess current developments in the conflict and discuss the Philippines’ positions on the protection of its territorial and maritime rights in the West Philippine Sea.
Justice Antonio T. Carpio is Senior Associate Justice and Acting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. The foremost authority on the historical and legal issues related to China’s claims on the West Philippine Sea, he plays a significant role in raising awareness of the Philippine perspective on the West Philippine Sea dispute, and has spoken before think-tanks and universities across the globe. His book, “The South China Sea Dispute: Philippine Sovereign Rights and Jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea” questions China’s claims, and was exclusively released as an e-book in an effort to overcome Chinese censorship.
Renato Cruz De Castro has written extensively on the West Philippine Sea dispute. His articles, mainly focusing on international security, insight into political approach from various perspectives, and the implications of the territorial dispute in the aftermath, have been published in scholarly journals worldwide. He is a professor in the International Studies Department of De La Salle University-Manila, and a member of the Board of Trustees at the Albert Del Rosario Institute of Strategic and International Studies.
Jay L. Batongbacal serves as the Director of the Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea at the University of the Philippines Law Center. His extensive work in maritime affairs includes the successful pursuit of the Philippine claim in the Benham Rise Region and securing the International Maritime Organization’s designation of the Tubbataha Reef Natural Park as a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area. He is listed on the UNCLOS List of Experts on Marine Scientific Research on Special Arbitration, and is widely recognized for his independent views on maritime policy issues, such as the West Philippine Sea dispute.
Richard Javad Heydarian has written extensively on the South China Sea and Asian maritime disputes, including Asia’s New Battlefield: US, China and the Struggle for the Western Pacific, the forthcoming Twilight of Empire: Trump, China & Struggle for Mastery in the Indo-Pacific, and the co-authored chapter on the South China Sea dispute in the Routledge Handbook of Asian Security. He is a regular contributor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. His commentaries on geopolitical affairs have been published in leading international publications such as CNN, The Guardian, and The New York Times.