MALACANANG got its way in drawing the country’s archepelagic baseline after all.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives agreed in Monday’s bicameral conference to adopt the Palace position to treat the disputed Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) and the Scarborough Shoal as “regimes of islands of the Republic of the Philippines” instead of enclosing the contested areas and the main archipelago in the baseline. (Download bicameral conference committee report)
A regime of islands essentially means whoever owns the island also owns the waters around it.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said the final version of Senate Bill No. 2699 and House Bill No. 3216 will explictly mention that the KIG is part of Palawan and Scarborough is what is traditionally known as Bajo de Masinloc.
Senate Bill No. 2699, which carries the Malacanang option, became the working draft of the bicameral conference committee.
Enrile said the technical working group will rewrite the bill without deviating from both the Senate and House bills to reflect the agreements reached by the two chambers.
The KIG refers to the chain of islands, atolls and islets within the South China Sea claimed by the Philippines. It is part of the larger Spratlys group also claimed wholly or in part by China, Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam and Malaysia.
The Scarborough Shoal located west of Zambales is a reef that has a South Rock feature that rises up to one or two meters above water during high tide. It is disputed by China and the Philippines.
The Philippines has continually exercised sovereignty and effective jurisdiction in the shoal and nearby waters. It has dismantled various markers erected by the Chinese there in the 90’s. This as China claims that Scarborough Shoal has been a Chinese territory since the Yuan Dynasty and is part of the Macclesfield Bank.
Last week the House passed on third and final reading its version of the archipelagic baseline bill that differs from the Senate version: The proposed baseline encloses the main archipelago and the KIG and the Scarborough Shoal.
The bill had been put in the backburner for sometime after China protested against it when it passed on second reading last year.
Rep. Antonio Cuenco, chair of the House foreign relations committee, said both chambers agreed to treat the KIG and the Scarborough Shoal as regimes of islands and insert the phrase “of the Republic of the Philippines.”
He said he reached this agreement with his Senate counterpart, Sen. Mirian Defensor-Santiago, in a meeting preceding Monday’s conference.
The Senate bill does not contain the phrase “of the Republic of the Philippines” in referring to the KIG and Scarborough.
“Those islands are still ours as they are now named regime of islands of the Republic of the Philippines,” Cuenco said. “As far as our committee in the House is concerned, we took note of the fact that both committees agreed in the backdoor talks for diplomatic maneuvers.”
Rep. Roquito Ablan said the senators and congressmen came to an agreement on the baseline bill after Enrile accepted the House’s suggestions on the style and language of the proposed legislation.
“We suggested some recommendations and to find out the right words in order to come up with a law that will be beneficial to the country,” he said.
The United Nations has given countries until May 13 this year to submit scientific data on the extended continental shelf they are claiming pursuant to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
There is no deadline for the filing of a country’s archipelagic baseline with the UN, but having a clear baseline will bolster a country’s claim over its extended territory.
