A maritime expert told a Senate panel Friday there is no need for the Philippines to enact a maritime zone bill to fortify its claims over the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
“I would argue and I suspect that the attorneys here at the table would say that the Philippine claims are already well-fortified under international law,” Gregory Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program and Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, said.
He noted that domestic legislation only further clarifies the issue, but doesn’t change the nature of Philippine claims.
Poling was among the resource speakers during the first hearing of the Senate special committee on Philippine maritime and admiralty zones chaired by Senator Francis Tolentino.
The committee seeks to draw up its own Philippine map to counter China’s expansive 10-dash line map that lays claim to the exclusive economic zones of several countries, including the Philippines.
Poling emphasized that the Philippines is already entitled to these claims.
“They are immutable just as they are for every other nation under UNCLOS (the United Nations Law of the Sea),” he said.
Given China’s increasingly aggressive behavior, its frequent harassment of the legal activities of the Philippines’ civilian and military in the country’s own waters, and the excessive and illegal nature of China’s claims under the 10-dash line, Poling said it clearly behooves all of the other claimant states to make perfectly clear what their own claims are.
The Philippine maritime claims, he said, are based on UNCLOS and on customary international law.
He said the 2016 win before the Permanent Court of Arbitration reinforced Philippine claims.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo Jose De Vega said having a law on maritime zones will add support to the country’s efforts to create guidelines for exercising its sovereignty and sovereign rights.
Neil Simon Silva of the UP Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea said if the Philippines wants the international community to support its claims, it will need a law that will be in consonance with the existing international laws.
Tolentino emphasized that defining the Philippine maritime zones will “allow Filipinos to responsibly enjoy the bounty of the Philippines’ rich maritime and archipelagic waters.”
On the other hand, he said leaving the Philippine maritime zones largely undefined will slow the country’s ability to responsibly exploit and develop its resources.
In other developments:
• Former senator and Defense secretary Orlando Mercado said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) needs to ensure a strong enforcement mechanism in the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea. “The organization [ASEAN] must develop mechanisms to enforce agreements and decisions in ensuring accountability. It is also critical that the new ASEAN way or whatever we may change in the ASEAN way, should actively seek strategic alliance with like-minded external powers to uphold a rules-based international order,” Mercado said in a forum Friday.
* A ranking American military official said there is nothing unusual about Filipino and American warships conducting joint patrols as the two nations’ military forces have been operating together for decades. “And we’ll continue to do that for a long term, ultimately to ensure that we can maintain the freedom of the seas, freedom of airspace so that all the nations in the region can enjoy peace and prosperity.” US Indo-Pacific Command chief, Adm. John Aquilino said on the sidelines of the meeting of the Mutual Defense Board-Security Engagement Board in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City. On Sept. 4, Filipino and American warships conducted a “bilateral sail” in waters off the western part of Palawan province.
* The Philippine Coast Guard on Friday said that Chinese research ships that were said to be roaming the eastern seaboard of the Philippines are no longer there. “I checked this morning if they are still there. But, so far, it’s negative… But we have monitored them before [loitering] in the area,” said PCG RADM. Armand Balilo.
* The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) frigate His Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Ottawa made a port call on Thursday morning as part of its six-day goodwill visit to bolster its partnership with the navies in the Indo-Pacific region. The Canadian frigate docked at Rivera Wharf around 9 a.m. and was welcomed by officials of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), led by its chairman and administrator, Jonathan Tan. At a press briefing aboard the frigate, Canada’s Ambassador to the Philippines David Hartman said that the port call was to demonstrate the close and growing relationship between Canada and the Philippines. Another Canadian ship, M/V Asterix, an auxiliary supply vessel leased to the RCN, will also visit Subic Bay on Sept. 16. A third Canadian ship, HMCS Vancouver, will arrive in Manila later this month.