Citizen Carpio

The President garnered praises this week when he spoke about our country’s victory over China at the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS. He attended an online conference of the UN when he “sort of” asserted our rights.

We say “sort of” because we all know that throughout his term the President usually kowtowed to what China wanted. We have become used to hearing our nation’s top leader sing praises for Communist China and Communist Russia while supposedly fighting local communists.

But an eighty-plus year-old nun in Quezon City sent me a private message saying the President should have given credit where credit is due. Sister was talking about Citizen Carpio. Yes, he is now a plain citizen.

Senior Associate Justice, and four-time Acting Chief Justice, Antonio Tirol Carpio is now a private citizen. He retired last year with a sterling voting record against politicians and corrupt officials, while favoring civil liberties, the environment, and most importantly, Philippine sovereignty versus the incursions of China. And yes, he is a cousin of the Tirols at my Alma Mater, the University of Bohol.

The point is, it was Antonio Carpio who consistently fought, then and now, for our sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea. The Philippine delegation won over China at the arbitration in July 2016 under the leadership of President Benigno Aquino III.

Part of the decision said, “The Tribunal found that China had violated the Philippines’ sovereign rights in its exclusive economic zone by (a) interfering with Philippine fishing and petroleum exploration, (b) constructing artificial islands and (c) failing to prevent Chinese fishermen from fishing in the zone”. The legal victory was very clear.

We, Boholanos, should be proud of the fact that part of the delegation that went to court to fight for our rights was Attorney Elmar Balite Galacio, college Summa Cum Laude at my other alma mater, the Holy Name University. He is a luminary at Justice Carpio’s The Firm, and nephew of then Vice Governor Dionisio Balite.
Justice Carpio, who graduated valedictorian of his class at the UP College of Law, was never subservient to the strongman from Davao despite the fact that he himself is a Davaoeño. He was decorated with Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa by my college alma mater, the Ateneo de Davao University.

When Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno was ousted through the efforts of the President’s and Marcos’ allies, Carpio was supposed to be the next in line. But the gentleman that he is, he said, “I will decline any nomination because I don’t want to benefit from the decision to which I disagreed”. There goes the best chief justice that we never had.