By TESSA JAMANDRE
CHINA has constructed a lighthouse on Subi Reef in the disputed areas in the South China Sea which Chinese troops are occupying but is being claimed by the Philippines and Vietnam.
By TESSA JAMANDRE EVEN before the diplomatic tension created by the Aug. 23 hostage crisis has subsided, President Beningo Aquino III will have to deal with another strain on the country’s relationship with China: the dormant yet sensitive issue of the contested Spratly Islands. The Spratlys dispute will be high on the agenda when Aquino
By JOSEPH ARNEL DELIVERIO Sibugay Express and VERA Files MORO National Liberation Front chairman Nur Misuari will question the legality of the recent oil exploration and drilling in the Sulu Sea, saying such activities should be coursed through the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and not through the national government. Misuari issued the statement during
By TESSA JAMANDRE THREE months after three other countries formally submitted to the United Nations their claims over the disputed Kalayaan Island Group (KIG), the Philippines finally registered its protests to those claims. Two protests to the unilateral submissions of Vietnam and Palau and another on the Joint Submission of Malaysia and Vietnam were filed
By TESSA JAMANDRE THE Philippines has filed before the United Nations a claim over Benham Rise, an extinct volcanic ridge off the east coast of Luzon, beating the May 13 deadline for states to submit claims over their extended continental shelves. The Philippine delegation deposited the claim with the UN Commission on the Limits of
By TESSA JAMANDREINTERNATIONAL law and constitutional law experts are set to ask the Supreme Court on Wednesday to nullify the three-week-old Archipelagic Baselines Law, barely a month before the May 13 deadline for the Philippine government to submit to the United Nations its claim over its extended continental shelf under the UN Convention on the
By TESSA JAMANDRE THE Philippines will soon initiate border talks with its neighbors and finally confront territorial issues it has long avoided, the most contentious being the dispute with Malaysia over Sabah, now that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has signed the Philippine Archipelagic Baseline Law. The Baseline Law defines the limits of Philippine territory. It is
CEBU Rep. Antonio V. Cuenco on Monday agreed to a proposal of House Speaker Prospero Nograles to postpone action on the baseline bill on third reading until the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council has met on the proposed legislation. “This is a brilliant idea to which I subscribe,” Cuenco, chair of the House committee on
NEGLECT by President Gloria Arroyo and squabbles over turf and money have derailed government efforts to establish the country's new archipelagic baseline, and may jeopardize the Philippines' claim over resource-rich Spratlys that fall within its extended continental shelf.
SIX islands occupied by the Philippines in the disputed Spratly Islands Groups are covered by two controversial joint seismic monitoring agreements among the Philippines, China and Vietnam that have come under fire for purportedly “sacrificing” Philippine interests in exchange for huge loans from Beijing.
