Part 1
The first document that officially demarcated our national boundary indicating the bounds of what constitutes the Philippine archipelago was the Treaty of Paris signed on Dec. 10, 1898 between the US and Spain. Article III of the treaty states, to quote:
“Spain cedes to the United States the archipelago known as the Philippine Islands, and comprehending the islands lying within the following line: A line running from west to east along or near the twentieth parallel of north latitude, and through the middle of the navigable channel of Bachi, from the one hundred and eighteenth (118th) to the one hundred and twenty-seventh (127th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, thence along the one hundred and twenty seventh (127th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich to the parallel of four degrees and forty five minutes (4 [degree symbol] 45’]) north latitude, thence along the parallel of four degrees and forty five minutes (4 [degree symbol] 45’) north latitude to its intersection with the meridian of longitude one hundred and nineteen degrees and thirty five minutes (119 [degree symbol] 35’) east of Greenwich, thence along the meridian of longitude one hundred and nineteen degrees and thirty five minutes (119 [degree symbol] 35’) east of Greenwich to the parallel of latitude seven degrees and forty minutes (7 [degree symbol] 40’) north, thence along the parallel of latitude of seven degrees and forty minutes (7 [degree symbol] 40’) north to its intersection with the one hundred and sixteenth (116th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, thence by a direct line to the intersection of the tenth (10th) degree parallel of north latitude with the one hundred and eighteenth (118th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, and thence along the one hundred and eighteenth (118th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich to the point of beginning.”
Under that treaty, all the islands that comprise the Spratly Islands which we have renamed as Kalayaan Group of Islands, and the Scarborough Shoal or Panatag Shoal are all located outside the boundary. Thus, from Dec. 10, 1898 to July 4, 1946, when the US granted us our independence, we have been observing those boundaries as what comprise our national territory. During the colonial period, the US secured those boundaries as part of their colonial dominion for which the last sentence of Article III states:
“The United States will pay to Spain the sum of twenty million dollars ($20,000,000) within three months after the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty.”
When the US granted us our independence, it never mentioned, even by way of reminder that the Panatag Shoal and the Kalayaan Group of Islands belong to the Republic of the Philippines. Surely, the US was aware that those islands are located outside the boundaries demarcated by the Treaty. The Philippines, as successor-in-interest, faithfully observed the same boundaries for like a Torrens Title handed to it, we can only impose our sovereignty and jurisdiction over the same areas.
As our dispute with China heats up, the US refuses to clarify this matter as a “buyer” of the archipelago from Spain for which it was given the title of ownership represented by the Treaty of Paris.
In that, one could infer that the US consistently acted in bad faith in not clarifying the boundary limits it bought from Spain and before it handed the archipelago to the Commonwealth government. Worst, it is now pushing the country towards a possible confrontation with China by insisting that those islands belong to us.
The US has not been candid enough like informing us that those islands are not part of the $20 million it paid to Spain in 1898. In fact, the only historical document we are holding that demarcates the Philippines as an archipelago are those ancient maps prepared by the friars and Spanish navigators. However, the official document indicating the area which Spain managed to maintain its effective occupation of the archipelago from 1521 Dec. 10, 1898 is demarcated in the Treaty of Paris.
Even if we take it that Tomas Cloma discovered the Spratly Islands in 1947 and firmed up his claim in May 1950 to declare ownership over those islands, that did not make sense because the US and the Philippines, as successor-in-interest, maintained and recognized the same boundaries that were demarcated in that Treaty. It was ludicrous for Cloma to declare the islands as his private dominion in a manner that Ferdinand Magellan claimed to have discovered the Philippines.
Moreover, in June 1950, Cloma stole the flag of China (Taiwan) that was erected in one of the islands in the Spratly. By his subsequent act of surrendering the flag on July 7, 1956 and making an official apology to China, inferentially it means that he was acknowledging that China has prior sovereign right over those islands.
When the 1973 Constitution was ratified on Jan. 17, 1973, the country adopted the “archipelagic doctrine.” Article I of that Constitution defining our national territory was rather self explanatory, to quote Section 1.
“The national territory comprises the Philippine archipelago, with all the islands and waters embraced therein, and all the other territories belonging to the Philippines by historic or legal title, including the territorial sea, the air space, the subsoil, the sea-bed, the insular shelves, and the submarine areas over which the Philippines has sovereignty or jurisdiction. The waters around, between and connecting the islands of the archipelago, irrespective of their breath and dimension, form part of the internal waters of the Philippines.”
The archipelagic doctrine is an imaginary line to demarcate boundaries curved in accordance to the island’s geologic contours and make a straight line to connect the two islands under the jurisdiction of the Philippine archipelago measured from its outermost baseline, and that those bodies of water around, between and connecting those islands irrespective of breath and dimension shall form part of the internal waters of the Philippines. The great bodies of water separating Palawan from Mindanao and the Sulo archipelago, between Palawan and Mindoro, between Zamboanga and Negros Island and the wide body of water surrounded by the islands of Leyte and Samar known as Leyte Gulf shall remain and treated as internal waters.