Palawan hits Congress bill on int’l sea lanes

PUERTO PRINCESA City—A pending bill in Congress intended to designate international sea lanes as a compliance measure to the country’s international legal obligations has Palawan up in arms.

Governor Abraham Mitra on Thursday signed a resolution passed by the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) opposing the proposed archipelagic sea lanes (ASL) bill pending in both upper and lower chambers and prioritized by the administration as a certified measure.

The PCSD, adopting recommendations earlier submitted by international law experts, warned that the ASL bill would open up Palawan to more foreign incursions and compromise its protected areas, including the Tubbataha Reefs National Marine Park, the country’s foremost marine protected area.

It warned that the measure would “likely accelerate the expansion of Chinese naval influence in the region.”

“We’re afraid its provisions will not be binding to foreign vessels and might prejudice small fishermen, open our seas and the province to more foreign incursions,” Mitra said.

He said that while they expected the House to pass the measure, which is now on second reading, “we (are) putting up a fight in the Senate.”

The province is asking the national government to delay the enactment of the ASL bill and hold consultations instead with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on how the international sea lanes may be designated.

As an archipelagic country, the Philippines is under obligation to identify archipelagic sea lanes as provided for under the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).

The measure, authored primarily by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, seeks to identify three passages within Philippine internal waters that will be accessible to foreign vessels as international waters.

Two of the proposed sea lanes will pass through Palawan waters—the axis line from Basilan Strait into Sulu Sea and the axis line from Nasubata Channel to Sulu Sea.

When enacted, the sea lanes will allow any foreign vessel to use the designated portions of the country’s waters, which extends to 25 nautical miles on each side of the designated axis lines, as open areas for international navigation and overflight.

The PCSD resolution pointed to the incursion of the proposed ASL into the “no take zones” of the Tubbataha Reefs, the country’s foremost marine protected area off the Palawan mainland and in the middle of the Sulu Sea.

“The deviation area of the axis line from Nasubata Channel overlaps with the park’s no take and buffer zone boundaries and which are about 20 nautical miles from the axis line,” the PCSD resolution noted.

International law expert Prof. Jay Batongbacal, who was asked his opinion on the issue by the PCSD, said in a paper that “the overlaps will cause serious detrimental effects on the country’s marine habitats and its predominantly fisheries-based economy.

Palawan officials also described the ASL measure as “premature” and will only worsen the tension in the Spratlys region, with China aggressively imposing its claim in the disputed oil-rich territories.

Mitra said the province would make a pitch to postpone the designation of ASLs in the country’s internal waters until after it has conducted consultations with the International Maritime Organization “as to the necessity, propriety and location of the ASL.”

The PCSD resolution asked Congress to revise the bill to allow the President to identify and designate the coordinates of the proposed ASLs.