House passes bill defining PH territorial waters

House of Representatives. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—In the face of maritime disputes with neighboring countries, the House of Representatives has approved a bill defining the Philippines’ territorial waters where it may exercise sovereign rights to explore and exploit resources.

On Wednesday, the day it adjourned for the Christmas break, the chamber passed the proposed “Philippine Maritime Zones Act” or House Bill No. 4889 co-authored by Albay Representative Al Francis Bichara, chair of the foreign affairs committee.

“This bill is a general declaration and definition of the maritime zones under the jurisdiction of the Philippines,” said Bichara and his co-authors, Magdalo party-list Representative Francisco Ashley Acedillo, Muntinlupa Representative Rodolfo Biazon, and Bukidnon Representative Jose Zubiri III.

The measure defines the country’s sovereign rights or jurisdiction over its maritime zones, including “exclusive rights to explore and exploit living and non-living, organic or non-organic resources found in these zones,” in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) and other existing laws and treaties.

The authors said the statute would provide the necessary flexibility in the enactment of subsequent laws pertinent to the rights and obligations to which the Philippines is entitled and may exercise over its maritime zones in accordance with international law.

They pointed out that the country, as a signatory to the Unclos, recognizes the establishment of various maritime zones and jurisdictions of coastal states, including its own, over which their sovereign rights may be exercised.

The bill states that the maritime zones of the country shall be composed of its internal waters, archipelagic waters, territorial sea, contiguous zone, exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and continental shelf.

“All territories of the Philippines shall generate their respective maritime zones in accordance with international law,” according to the measure.

Archipelagic waters shall refer to the waters on the landward side of the archipelagic baselines except as provided for under the provisions defining the internal waters of the country.

Territorial sea shall refer “to the belt of sea measured 12 nautical miles from the baselines or from the low-water line, as the case may be.”

The contiguous zone shall refer to the “waters beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea and up to the extent of 24 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.”

On the other hand, EEZ of the country shall refer to “the waters beyond and adjacent to its territorial sea and up to the extent of 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.”

The bill also defines the continental shelf of the Philippines as comprising “the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond its territorial sea throughout the natural prolongation of its land territory to the outer edge of the continental margin, or to a distance of 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured where the outer edge of the continental margin does not extend up to that distance.”

The Philippines shall exercise sovereign rights over those areas, including the right to explore and exploit its resources according to the Unclos and existing laws and treaties, the authors said.

Furthermore, the bill provides that other rights not stipulated in the proposed law shall be exercised by the country in accordance with international law and the laws of the country.

If the maritime zones of the Philippines overlap with the maritime zones claimed by other countries, the Philippines “shall delimit these zones and endeavor to resolve the overlaps according to the recognized means under international law,” the authors said.

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