Philippines Should Draw Up Its Map to Protest Its Spratly Claim

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Q. Pimentel,
Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said Congress and the executive
branch should adopt a common position on the issue of
the urgent legislation delineating the archipelagic
baselines of the Philippines to protect its
territorial right over the disputed Kalayaan Islands,
known in the international map as the Spratly islands.

Pimentel said that the bill to draw up the country’s
archipelagic map should be given top priority by the
Senate to complement a similar undertaking by the
House of Representatives and to beat the May, 2009
deadline set by the United Nations.

“Definitely, it is incumbent upon us to protect and
assert our territorial rights over the seas around us,
and even to the extent of 200-nautical miles from the
edge of our seas as our exclusive economic zone
(EEZ),” he said.

The minority leader said the published statement of
Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) President
Antonio Cailao admitting that the entire
142,886-square kilometer area covered by the 2005
Philippine-China-Vietnam agreement for a joint marine
seismic undertaking in the South China Sea “is all
within Philippine territory” makes it more imperative
for the Philippines to define its archipelagic
baselines “to assert our sovereign control over the
Spratly islands.” The agreement was signed by the
national oil companies of the three countries.

“If what he (Cailao) said is true, all the more we
should push for a definition of our territory whatever
the opinion of other countries may be,” Pimentel said.

Quoting Cebu City Rep. Antonio Cuenco, chairman of the
House committee on foreign relations, Pimentel said
the Philippine government should address this crucial
issue like a ship moving “full steam ahead and damn
the torpedoes!”

He said Congress and Malacañang should resolve their
differences over the configuration of the Philippines
archipelagic map without in any way creating the
impression that the country’s legal and historic claim
to the Kalayaan Islands may be compromised or
weakened.

However, Pimentel also said “we should not rile our
friends-China and Vietnam” with which the Philippines
is enjoying friendly and mutually beneficial
relations.

He said it would be ridiculous for the Philippines not
to include the Kalayaan Islands within its
archipelagic baselines because this is being made
precisely in pursuit of its rights as an archipelagic
state under the United Nations Convention on the Law
of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Moreover, Pimentel said the Kalayaan Islands have been
officially annexed as part of Philippine territory and
they have been under actual and effective control of
the Philippines since 1978.

Pimentel said he is inclined to agree with the advice
given by a group of law professors from the University
of the Philippines for Congress to pass the law
drawing up the country’s archipelagic map regardless
of the reservations expressed by China or any other
claimant state.

At any rate, he pointed out all disputes or
overlapping claims will be subject to final resolution
by the United Nations in accordance with UNCLOS.