Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago proposed yesterday the creation of a congressional commission on national territory to strengthen the country’s claims on internationally disputed territories like the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
The Philippines needs to have a law that will legitimize and strengthen the country’s territorial stake based on extensive archipelagic baselines that it has to define ahead of the May 2009 deadline set by the United Nations.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap earlier warned that missing the UN deadline would forfeit the country’s claim on the Spratlys and other areas that are teeming with fishery and mineral resources.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the failure of the country to define clearly its territories would aggravate the controversy over the agreements signed by Philippines with China and Vietnam for a Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) in the South China Sea.
“Without our boundaries, how do we know our territories?” Lacson asked.
Santiago promised to file a resolution tomorrow to address the discrepancies in the definition of national territory, which emerged when the country became party to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS in 1984.
UNCLOS defines the rights and responsibilities of countries in their use of the world’s oceans, providing guidelines for businesses, environment protection and the management of marine natural resources.
The Constitution, however, based its definition of national territory on the 1898 Treaty of Paris.
“There is a serious lack of assessment of the impact of the UNCLOS on the national territory, particularly in regard to national security and environmental issues. It is therefore imperative that decisive measures be taken towards achieving final resolution to all questions relating to national territory,” Santiago said.
Santiago’s proposed congressional commission, to be created jointly by the Senate and the House of Representatives, shall undertake a national review and assessment of national territory and identify the fundamental problems and corresponding solutions.
The commission shall also analyze the full impact of the UNCLOS on the country’s existing claims on the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG or Spratlys), the Scarborough Shoal, and Sabah in North Borneo.
“The drawing of the archipelagic baselines encompassing the entire Kalayaan Island Group may prove to be a highly sensitive problem, owing to the existing claims of China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan,” Santiago explained.
Various lawmakers have already sought an investigation into allegations of “sellout” and “treason” when the Philippines signed the JMSU with China and Vietnam.
They said the country may have weakened its claim on the Spratlys in exchange for billions of dollars in loans from China.
“Congress has to pass soon enough new legislation redefining the Philippines’ archipelagic baselines to establish the standard 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) to stave off the disastrous consequence of the loss of the country’s territorial claim over such ECS (extended continental shelf) areas as the Kalayaan Island Group and Benham Rise,” Yap earlier said.
Yap said the areas at stake also have vast deposits of mineral resources like nickel and gold as well as raw materials for pharmaceutical products.
Yap said unless Congress succeeds in passing a bill redefining the country’s archipelagic boundaries ahead of the UN deadline, “these areas will either become part of the International Seabed Area – the so-called Common Heritage of Mankind – or be awarded to neighboring states that are similarly contesting jurisdiction over them.”
House Bill 3216 authored by Cebu Rep. Antonio Cuenco seeks to redefine the Philippine Archipelagic Baselines by amending Republic Act No. 3046 and RA 5446, the laws defining the Philippines’ maritime borders. The two laws are inconsistent with the provisions of UNCLOS.
Under UNCLOS, each state is authorized to explore and use resources in its continental shelf and adjacent seabed up to 200 miles from its shore. In cases where the margins exceed 200 miles from the baselines, these states can assert their respective claims to these extended continental shelf or ECS areas.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has long been lobbying Congress to pass HB 3216.