By TESSA JAMANDRE
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Wednesday the Philippine Archipelagic Baseline law that excludes the disputed Kalayaan Island Group and Scarborough Shoal from the archipelagic baseline. The new law, Republic Act 9522, instead classifies them as “regimes of islands.” (Download a copy of RA 9522)
A regime of islands is defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as islands or naturally formed areas of land surrounded by water that remain above water during high tide.
The enactment of the law immediately drew “strong opposition and solemn protest” from China.
The Chinese embassy in Manila called the Philippines’ sovereignty claim over Kalayaan Islands off Palawan and Scarborough Shoal in the western seaboard “illegal and invalid.”
It said the two areas “have always been parts of Chinese territory and that the People’s Republic of China has indisputable sovereignty over these islands and their adjacent waters.”
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita told the weekly press conference the new law reaffirms the country’s claims to its territorial waters, including its extended continental shelf, economic zones, and the Kalayaan Islands off Palawan and the Scarborough Shoal in the western seaboard.
The two contested areas are wholly or partly claimed by Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.
Last Monday, detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV branded the final version of the baseline bill a “sell-out,” saying the Arroyo administration buckled under “pressure” from China so as not to jeopardize its investment and development deals with China.
He said a rock like Scarborough Shoal is not entitled to an exclusive economic zone and extended continental shelf if classified as a regime of islands.
Trillanes filed in August 2007 a bill seeking to include Scarborough Shoal in the archipelagic baseline.
Several legislators had also sought to enclose Kalayaan Islands or Scarborough Shoal, or both, in the archipelagic baseline but eventually relented upon Malacanang’s lobbying because of China’s objections.
Ermita said RA 9522 was enacted in time to meet the May 13 deadline of UNCLOS for countries and archipelagic states to submit their claims to their extended continental shelf.
Department of Foreign Affairs’ Henry Bensurto, secretary general of the Commission on Maritime and Ocean Affairs, said the law is a “clinical and technical adjustment” of the existing baseline law as required by the UNCLOS.
He said UNCLOS did not exist yet when the old law, RA 3046, which defined the country’s baselines was signed. UNCLOS came about only in 1994.