Dropping Spratlys from RP Map ‘Treasonous’

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today called on the Senate and House of Representatives not to succumb to Malacañang’s pressure to water down the bill delineating the archipelagic baselines of the Philippines by putting the Kalayaan Islands (Spratly Islands in the International map) and Scarborough Shoals outside those baselines or territorial boundaries.

Pimentel said the Palace’s position to treat the Kalayaan Islands and Scarborough Shoal as a “regime of islands” would have the effect of weakening the Philippine claim to those islands over which it already exercises effective sovereign control.

“The proposed exclusion of the Spratlys and Scarborough Shoal is tragic, if not treasonous,” he said.

“It’s the duty of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to assert our territorial claims forcefully but peacefully.”

Pimentel has filed a bill with the Senate adopting in full the House version of the bill on the Philippine archipelagic baselines authored by Cebu Rep. Antonio Cuenco. He said he took this course of action to expedite the enactment of the long-overdue bill which is required of the Philippines by the United Nations pursuant to the UN Law of the Sea.

He said the Palace’s resistance of the bill, as presently drafted, only fuels the suspicion that the Arroyo government does not want to offend China because it may jeopardize the economic and business package that was promised by Beijing.

However, he said any conflicting or overlapping claim over disputed islands or territories in the South China should be resolved by the United Nations.

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