Exclusion of Spratlys from Senate baseline bill ‘unconstitutional’

“Also read The Baseline Issue a position paper by Sen. Antonio Trillanes…”

By Angelo S. Samonte, Reporter
The Manila Times
November 4, 2008

Lawmakers would be violating the Constitution if they exclude the Spratly Islands in a new Senate archipelagic baseline bill, a legal expert said Monday.

“It is a wrong move for our senators if they exclude the Kalayaan Island Group [KIG] in the new Senate baseline bill,” lawyer Harry Roque, a law professor at the University of the Philippines’ Law Center, told The Manila Times. “Not including it in the baseline bill will weaken our claim to the disputed territories.”

On Monday, The Times reported that 14 members of the Senate Foreign Relations and the National Defense committees have recommended the passage of a law defining the Philippines’ archipelagic baselines that exclude the disputed Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal.

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, the chairman of the Foreign Relations committee, said the exclusion did not mean the Philippines would surrender its claim to the Kalayaan Island Group, which is part of the 100 reefs, islets and islands that make up the Spratlys.

But Roque said that excluding those islands from the country’s baseline law violates the Constitution, because the Charter mandates the government to protect the country’s territory.

“We will question it in court in case it passes Congress,” Roque said, adding however that he believes the bill could hardly pass the Senate because of delays.

“I don’t think it could be passed. It’s like other government efforts on this issue that hasn’t moved for the last several years,” he added.

Defensor had said she wants to pass the bill before the yearend.

Focus of attention

Roque said the government should not be concentrating on defining the country’s baseline, since it doesn’t have much significance at this time.

“The Arroyo administration must be addressing the May 2009 deadline for the filing of its claim for an extended continental shelf under the United Nations Convention on the Law “Also read <a href=”http://baselineissue.blogspot.com/”>The Baseline Issue</a> a position paper by Sen. Antonio Trillanes…”<br /><br />By Angelo S. Samonte, Reporter<br />The Manila Times<br />November 4, 2008<br /><br />Lawmakers would be violating the Constitution if they exclude the Spratly Islands in a new Senate archipelagic baseline bill, a legal expert said Monday.<br /><br />“It is a wrong move for our senators if they exclude the Kalayaan Island Group [KIG] in the new Senate baseline bill,” lawyer Harry Roque, a law professor at the University of the Philippines’ Law Center, told The Manila Times. “Not including it in the baseline bill will weaken our claim to the disputed territories.”<br /><br />On Monday, The Times reported that 14 members of the Senate Foreign Relations and the National Defense committees have recommended the passage of a law defining the Philippines’ archipelagic baselines that exclude the disputed Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal.<br /><span class=”fullpost”><br />Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, the chairman of the Foreign Relations committee, said the exclusion did not mean the Philippines would surrender its claim to the Kalayaan Island Group, which is part of the 100 reefs, islets and islands that make up the Spratlys.<br /><br />But Roque said that excluding those islands from the country’s baseline law violates the Constitution, because the Charter mandates the government to protect the country’s territory.<br /><br />“We will question it in court in case it passes Congress,” Roque said, adding however that he believes the bill could hardly pass the Senate because of delays.<br /><br />“I don’t think it could be passed. It’s like other government efforts on this issue that hasn’t moved for the last several years,” he added.<br /><br />Defensor had said she wants to pass the bill before the yearend.<br /><br />Focus of attention<br /><br />Roque said the government should not be concentrating on defining the country’s baseline, since it doesn’t have much significance at this time.<br /><br />“The Arroyo administration must be addressing the May 2009 deadline for the filing of its claim for an extended continental shelf under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas, not the amendment of the baseline law,” Roque said.<br /><br />“Once we miss the deadline, we’ll lose the opportunity to claim the territories that belong to us,” he explained.<br /><br />The UN convention defines continental shelf as “the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond its territorial sea.” A continental shelf that goes beyond 200 nautical miles is called the outer limit or the extended continental shelf. States may claim an extended continental shelf of up to 350 nautical miles from the baseline.<br /><br />Congress does not need to pass the baseline law before May 2009, but the UN would still need a revised baseline as a reference point when deciding on the Philippine claim, Roque said.<br /><br />The Arroyo administration is not working hard enough despite the deadline because “there is not much money to be made” in these efforts, he added.<br /><br />In 2001, Roque said that the University of the Philippines’ National Institute of Geological Sciences and the Law Center’s Institute of International Legal Studies did a presentation before the President on the issue, and it is up to her to act.<br /><br />The professor’s group undertook the project, “Delineation of the Outer Limits of the Philippine Continental Shelf,” in cooperation with the Department of Energy, Namria and the Mines and Geo­sciences Bureau.<br /><br />The Philippine government must submit the claim before the May 13, 2009 deadline to the UN over its extended continental shelf, which scientists and legal ex­perts say include the resource-rich Kalayaan Island Group and other disputed territories.<br /><br />Besides the Philippines, the Spratlys in the South China Sea are also being claimed wholly or in part by China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.<br /><br />The version of the baseline bill at the Philippine House of Representatives is already approved on second reading, and it includes the Kalayaan Island Group. But Cebu Rep. Antonio Cuenco, the chairman of the Foreign Relations committee, said the House is amenable to excluding it and Scarborough Shoal as long as they remain subject to Philippine sovereignty.<br /><br />If the Senate version is different from that approved by the House, the lawmakers will thresh out a compromise bill in a bicameral committee before the President approves it.<br /></span>