Impeaching Duterte is not the answer! Carpio says he only wants protection in PH territory

RMN photo

Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said he is not after Duterte's impeachment, only maritime protection.

This, despite the Chief Executive’s tirade to Carpio where he called him “buang” and “stupid” after he referred to the president's approval of the Chinese fishermen in PH EEZ (exclusive economic zone) as unconstitutional.

In a forum he attended in Taguig City, the maritime rights advocate said: “I’m not interested in impeachment, I want protection.”

Reiterating his stance, the Justice Carpio said: “Impeachment is not the issue, I’m more on the preventive side; I don’t want ours to be taken by other countries. We want to reserve it for the fishermen,”

The Associate Justice's statement came following the opposition's claim that Pres. Rodrigo Duterte can be impeached based on his prior remarks where he said Chinese fishermen will not be barred from fishing within the country's EEZ.

The senior magistrate made himself clear that he does not want to politicize the issue, saying it is Congressmen's duty to decide whether or not Duterte is indeed impeachable.

Meanwhile, speaking before the University of the Philippines students in Diliman during the Recognition Day of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Carpio told the students that aside from protecting their personal integrity, there is another kind of integrity that concerns every Filipinos: territorial integrity.

According to Carpio, territorial integrity “is an integrity that you must also protect and safeguard with your own life, if necessary,”

Retaliating to Duterte's previous remarks, he said “This exclusivity is not a ‘thoughtless and senseless’ provision in our Constitution, as President Duterte has unfortunately characterized,”

“We have to ask our neighboring countries, including China, if there is a breaking up of (the food) chain, the South China Sea will collapse, that’s why it’s very important to maintain the maritime environment,” he continued.

“How do we do that? Ask our neighbors, everybody including China, to declare the Spratlys as ‘maritime protected area’ so that we can preserve the environment,” Carpio added.

Source: Philstar