Last month, on August 27, Senator Leila de Lima marked her 62nd birthday – her fifth in prison. Yes, she’s been unjustly detained for a long time.

EveryWoman, a coalition of individuals and organizations that seeks to empower women, organized an online birthday celebration by talking about facets of De Lima’s life as a public servant.

I am sharing excerpts of my talk which focused on the crucial role De Lima played in the shaping of the Philippine maritime case versus China. Here goes:

“Senator Leila’s critical contribution to the Philippine victory in its maritime case against China is little known. What she did made a difference, tipping the scales in favor of the country.

“Her intervention had to do with Itu Aba, an ‘island’ in the South China Sea which turned out to be critical in the arbitration. Claimed by China, the Philippines, and Vietnam, Itu Aba had been occupied by Taiwan since the 1940s.

“The central question was: Was Itu Aba a rock or an island? If it were declared a rock by the arbitral tribunal, then it would only be entitled to twelve nautical miles of territorial seas. If it were an island, it would be entitled to a much more expansive space, a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

“The Philippines considered Itu Aba a rock, defined by UNCLOS (Article 121) as land permanently above water but unable to sustain human habitation and economic life on its own.

“The strategic effect of classifying Itu Aba as a rock was that its maritime zone would not overlap with that of Palawan and the nearby oil-and-gas rich Reed Bank, which was eighty nautical miles away and within the Philippines’ EEZ. The most important thing to remember about classifying Itu Aba as a rock is: This would put the area beyond dispute.

“If the tribunal ruled that it was an island, then the ambiguity would remain. Competing claims would continue to China’s advantage, since it has the brawn to edge out smaller coastal states like the Philippines.

“The tribunal agreed with the Philippines and declared that Itu Aba was not an island and, therefore, was only entitled to a limited maritime zone of twelve miles. The Philippines won but the path to this victory was a difficult one.

‘At war with itself’

“As the deadline to file the memorial (pleading) neared in March 2014, the question continued to hang in the air: Would Itu Aba be kept – all of fifteen paragraphs in the memorial – or was it going to be deleted?

“On one side was the agent and Solicitor General, Francis Jardeleza, who tried very hard to make Itu Aba invisible in the entire arbitration process, apparently upon the instruction of Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa. The other side, led by Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and backed by Justice Antonio Carpio, took the position of the foreign counsels and pushed for the inclusion of Itu Aba in the memorial.

“On separate occasions, Jardeleza and Del Rosario had discussed this with the president. As the impasse continued, the only way the problem was going to be resolved was for President Aquino to step in and decide.

“The foreign counsels had prepared a memorial of close to 300 pages, accompanied by volumes of annexes. When Jardeleza reviewed it, he wanted the section on Itu Aba removed because he apparently did not want to take the risk that “if the tribunal ruled that it was an island, there would be an overlap of EEZs,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer days after the Philippines won the case in 2016.

“However, in 2014, he informed Justice Aurora Lagman, a member of the Judicial and Bar Council (Jardeleza was then applying for the Supreme Court), that a “German scholar” advised the exclusion of Itu Aba. At the time, Stefan Talmon, a German professor, had co-edited a book, The South China Sea Arbitration: A Chinese Perspective, which took China’s side.

Noynoy and Leila

“President Aquino was asked to resolve the intense differences. His decision paved the way for this big win.

“Several days before the filing of the memorial, Carpio met with then Justice Secretary De Lima and briefed her on the situation. De Lima, as a key ally of President Aquino, enjoyed his confidence. She would be an important Cabinet member to convey the message to the president that Itu Aba be kept in the memorial.

“De Lima was convinced and met with the President the next day in Malacañang. She explained the arguments.

“The moment of reckoning came. Aquino called for a meeting with Ochoa, presidential legal counsel Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, Del Rosario, Jardeleza, and De Lima. Apart from Ochoa, Caguioa seemed to support Jardeleza. The president went over the arguments and the counter-arguments.

“Eventually, he decided to include Itu Aba in the memorial’s discussion.”

The rest is history.

Till next Monday! Drop me a line at marites.vitug@rappler.com.

P.S. On September 16 at 9 a.m., for my show, “Southeast Asia Speaks,” I will be interviewing Gregory Poling of the Center for Strategic and International Studies on US foreign policy in Southeast Asia. Greg oversees research on US foreign policy in the Asia Pacific. I invite you to watch it. Should you have questions for Greg, please email them to Happy Feraren, Rappler+ Program Lead, at plus@rappler.com.