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By Efren L. Danao, Senior Reporter
Fourteen members of the Senate Committees on Foreign Relations and
on National Defense have recommended the passage of a law defining
the country’s archipelagic baselines that excludes the disputed
Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal.
The Philippines is claiming the Kalayaan Island
Group, which is part of the Spratlys —a group of 100 reefs, islets
and islands that are also claimed in part or in whole by China,
Malaysia, Brunei, South Vietnam and Taiwan.
All claimant countries, including the
Philippines, believe there are some 200 billion barrels of oil,
natural gas, minerals and polymetals—such as gold, silver, iron
and nickel—under the sea surrounding the Spratlys.
Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, chairman of the
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said the exclusion of the
contested islands does not weaken the Philippine claims as the bill
reiterates Philippine sovereignty over them. The muncipality of
Kalayaan is home to 350 Flipinos, 236 of whom are registered voters.
But to include the disputed territory in the
Philippine baseline bill would most likely invite the other
countries claiming the Spratlys to reject the Philippine
measure—and exclude the country from protection from an
international maritime law.
Section 2 of the Senate’s joint committee
report states: “The KIG [Kalayaan Island Group], declared as
belonging and subject to the sovereignty of the Philippines under
Presidential Decree 1956, and the Scarborough Shoal, over which the
Philippines exercises sovereignty and jurisdiction, shall be
declared as ‘regime of islands’ of the Philippines under Article
121 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas.”
From the Santiago committee, the baseline bill
will go to the plenary for voting. She said she hopes the Senate
would approve the measure before year-end.
If the Senate version is different from that
approved by the House of Representatives, the lawmakers will thresh
out a compromise bill in a bicameral committee. The output would
again have to be approved by both chambers, before the President can
sign it into law.
The Philippines is under pressure to pass the
bill, with a United Nations’ deadline fast approaching on May 13,
2009.
House version
The inclusion of the phrase “belonging and
subject to the sovereignty of the Philippines” was insisted upon
by Cebu Rep. Antonio Cuenco, Santiago’s counterpart in the House,
to ensure that there would be no misinterpretation of the Philippine
intention in excluding Kalayaan islands from its archipelagic
baselines.
The House bill, which is already approved on
second reading, includes the Kalayaan Island Group and Scarborough.
But Cuenco said the House is amenable to excluding them as long as
they remain subject to Philippine sovereignty.
Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, chairman of the Senate
Committee on National Defense, had proposed the declaration of the
Kalayaan Island Group and Scarborough as a “regime of islands”
under Article 121 of the UNCLOS, or United Nations Convention on the
Law of the Seas. Santiago said that including them in the baselines
would undermine international recognition of the proposed baseline
law.
Santiago also said Republic Act 3046 defines and
delineates the Philippine archipelago “but it does not conform to
the UNCLOS.” She added that the law, passed during martial law,
unilaterally declared the Philippine exclusive economic zone (EEZ)
so it does not bind other countries.
Earlier, former Justice Secretary Estelito
Mendoza, a consultant to the technical working group and the only
Philippine delegate to the UNCLOS, said the Philippines would get
its best protection by establishing the limits of its maritime
areas, the territorial seas and the exclusive economic zone in
accordance with UNCLOS.
“Otherwise, the only way we can protect those
borders would be by force which we do not have,” Mendoza
explained.
The joint committee report is a consolidation of
bills filed separately by Senators Edgardo Angara, Juan Ponce
Enrile, Biazon, Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Antonio Trillanes 4th. The
bills of Pimentel and Trillanes sought to include the contested
islands.
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