Monday, November 2, 2015

The Spratlys are ours as per the Treaty of Washington


The Treaty of Washington of 1900 (the Treaty) was signed on November 7, 1900, and came into effect on March 23, 1901, when the Treaty ratifications were exchanged.  The Treaty sought to remove any ground of misunderstanding growing out of the interpretation of Article III of the 1898 Treaty of Paris by clarifying the specifics of territories relinquished to the US by Spain.

In consideration for certain explicit statement of relinquishments documented in the Treaty, the US agreed to pay to Spain the sum of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) within six (6) months after the exchange of Treaty ratifications. (Wikipedia)

News had just recently came out that the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) discovered that, under the explicit terms of the Treaty, the Spratlys are, in fact, part of the territories ceded by Spain to the US under the Treaty of Paris.  The GRP will present this newly-discovered information to UNCLOS as additional evidence to support her claim over the Spratlys (as well as other territories within her 200-mile EEZ).

This is a very major development on the Spratlys disputes.

The Philippines now have a legal basis to claim the entire Spratlys.  And the islands of the Spratlys can now be used as baselines to measure the territorial sea and EEZ boundaries of the Philippines.

More importantly, the US is now legally a former owner of the Spratlys, and the Spratlys are now legally part of the territories donated by the US to the GRP in 1946.

Should any third party (e.g. China) attempt to dispossess the GRP of such donation, the US will now have the legal basis to intervene.

With the full might of the US Military Establishment, if necessary.


20 comments:

  1. Philippines is a part of US home land base on history.

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  2. Maybe it is time for us to rejoin the American Union...

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  3. Personally I want U.S. to intervene, however, I do not know what would be the implications.

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    1. At best, we will get what is rightfully ours... At worst, World War III...

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  4. China, being a member of the united nations must abide by the international laws that apply. And again, ignorance of the law is no excuse. Consequently, China otherwise is showing ignorance and disrespect. Brave or a careless country?

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    1. With an estimated 700 million Chinese living in poverty, I am inclined to say that their leaders are clearly stupid...

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  5. Yeah guys and this is where the III WW would start. Right or wrong?

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  6. China is CRAZY to claim the South CHINA Sea as theirs because it is named so. Are they saying that the INDIAN Ocean belongs to India?

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    1. I they think they know that too. But Greed is an affliction that is very hard to cure.

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  7. Powerful nations and emerging nations flex their muscles and China is no different. Mo dern times and olden times tell us that is the way geopoliticsz works.

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  8. Let's help our country buy warships.. ok lang kilangan natin ito..

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    1. We definitely need more warships. Guided missile ones. As well as submarines. And top-of-the-line MRFs.

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  9. At least the Chinese government is doing its best to gain resources and feed its people unlike in the Philippines where the leaders are the ones robbing them of their rights, services and even money.

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    1. 700 million Chinese are living in poverty right now. That's 7 times the population of the Philippines. Yet, the CROCs (Communist Rulers of China) are spending their precious dollars in challenging the US for supremacy in the Western Pacific. Where is the logic in that?

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  10. CHINA must not change the World History of who owns the Spratlys Islands due to their GREED. In the name of PEACE China must leave the West Philippine Sea...

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    1. They have no intention of doing so. I suspect this is just the first step in the long-range plan of building their own Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere...

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