RP DELEGATE TO UNCLOS:
'Don't include Kalayaan Group of Islands in baselines bill'
Including occupied islands ‘absurd’
By Abigail Kwok
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 13:23:00 08/07/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE) A Philippine delegate to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on Thursday said it would be “simply absurd” for the government to include the Kalayaan Group of Islands within the country’s baselines since most of these are occupied by other countries.
Appearing at the Senate committee hearing on the bill that seeks to define the country’s territories, lawyer Estelito Mendoza, who is also a former solicitor general, said it is “simply absurd to put great risk on drawing base points in islands occupied by other countries.”
Mendoza said the Philippines does not have the “military or navy might” to enforce its claims on the disputed islands but it also risks violating international law if it includes the Kalayaan Group within its baselines.
“The question is whether the Kalayaan group of islands is part of the Philippine archipelago. We will have extreme difficulty establishing that point because we have never, during the centuries of the island's existence, regarded the Kalayaan as part of the Philippine archipelago,” Mendoza said.
The solution, said Mendoza, is to establish maritime limits first within the country to officially establish it as an archipelago based on international definitions.
“The best protection we have is that we establish these maritime limits in accordance with international laws. Under UNCLOS, even if a group of islands qualify as an archipelago, it does not acquire the status of an archipelago unless it draws baselines,” he said.
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago agreed with Mendoza, saying including the Kalayaan Group would violate of international laws because “it is not accepted by international laws that you can expand your territory simply by drawing lines.”
Santiago said a technical working group headed by the Commission on Maritime and Ocean Affairs of the Office of the President would be drafting the bill. After which, Mendoza would be asked to make the necessary recommendation.
“In effect, we have agreed that the Philippines must beat the deadline by May 2009, that we shall draw our baseline pursuant to the archipelagic doctrine in the UNCLOS,” Santiago added.
She also said that the TWG would be excluding the Scarborough Shoals and the Kalayaan Group of Islands in the draft bill but they would “include them as a regime of islands.”
“We will not lose our claim over these islands whether we enclose them inside the baselines or treat them outside the baselines as a regime of islands,” Santiago said.
House Bill No. 3216, which is in virtual limbo after being passed by the House of Representatives on second reading last December, proposes that islands in the South China Sea already occupied by other countries, including China, that claim ownership of the Spratlys Islands be included within Philippine territory.
After Mendoza's statement, the committee went into executive session, citing security reasons, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said.
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