Cagayan de Oro City 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez on Tuesday urged Congress to finally pass a bill delineating the country’s maritime boundaries, including its 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Rodriguez made this call after the Philippine and Indonesian governments signed the principles and guidelines for the delimitation of their continental shelf boundary on Oct. 7.
The agreement was an offshoot of the visit to Jakarta of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. from Sept. 4 to 6.
“The projected talks between the Philippines and our neighbor Indonesia should prompt Congress to now approve a maritime zones bill. Such a law would also serve as the framework for negotiations on territorial limits between and among nations claiming islets and maritime areas in the South China Sea,” Rodriguez said.
“It will also be our weapon in enforcing our laws, exploring resources and protecting our fishermen in these areas,” he said.
The Mindanao lawmaker has filed House Bill 2467, or “An Act declaring the maritime zones under the jurisdiction of the Philippines,” that delineates the country’s maritime territory to include its 200-mile EEZ that is measured from its shoreline and its continental shelf, aside from its internal and archipelagic waters and territorial sea.
Rodriguez’s proposed definition of the country’s maritime territory includes the China-occupied Scarborough or Panatag Shoal off Zambales and Pangasinan, locally known as Bajo de Masinloc, a traditional fishing ground of Filipinos.
The Chinese Coast Guard routinely patrols this area, which Beijing seized in 2012 after a standoff between Chinese and Philippine Coast Guard vessels.
In HB 2467, Rodriguez said the Philippines, as a signatory and party to the 1983 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), “recognizes the establishment of various maritime zones and jurisdiction of coastal states, including its own, over which sovereignty and appurtenant sovereign rights can be exercised.”
The chair of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments pointed out that UNCLOS allow party-states to define their maritime territory.
“Thus, the country exercises sovereignty over its internal waters, archipelagic waters, territorial sea and airspace over it, as well as its seabed and subsoil in accordance with UNCLOS and other existing laws and treaties,” he said.
He said the Philippines also exercises sovereign rights over its “contiguous zone, exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, including the right to explore and exploit living and nonliving, organic or nonorganic resources.”
Rodriguez added that Congress should not be afraid of how China would react to the enactment of such a law.
A large part of the Philippine EEZ is claimed by China, which has transformed some disputed islets in that area into military installations.
“Enacting it is our right under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea. Let us not worry about what the Chinese will say. Let us think of our own national interest,” Rodriguez said
Source: Philippines News Agency
