"Ignorance heightened by foreign instigation."
Our problem in the South China Sea is borne out of our ignorance heightened by foreign instigation in presenting the issue as a defense of interest. We never took into account the problem because we never seriously examined our history.
If only we look back and reexamine our not-so-distant past, maybe we would be able to have a clearer view of what originally constituted the Philippine archipelago or to be precise, the boundaries of the Republic of the Philippines.
Officially, the boundaries remain recognized to this day by most nations. The Philippine boundary is, in fact, the oldest geographical map even older than the present-day China and India. That began when the country, then a colony of Spain, was sold to the US for $20 million, formalized in the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898. The Philippine Islands, lie within the following line:
“A line running from west to east along or near the 20th parallel of north latitude, and through the middle of the navigable channel of Bachi (Now known as Bashi channel), from the 118th to the 127th degrees meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, thence along the 127th degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich to the parallel of 4°45′ north latitude, thence along the parallel of 4°45′ north latitude to its intersection with the meridian of longitude 119°35′ east of Greenwich, thence along the meridian of longitude 119°35′ east of Greenwich to the parallel of latitude 7°40′ north, thence along the parallel of latitude 7°40′ north to its intersection with the 116th degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, thence by a direct line to the intersection of the 10th degree parallel of north latitude with the 118th degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, and thence along the 118th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich to the point of beginning.”
On November 7, 1900 a minor amendment was made in the Treaty of Paris. Article III of the cession treaty made adjustments to demarcate Sibuto as our boundary to the nearby island of Borneo, a narrow passageway for vessels passing to and from the Pacific Ocean to the South China Sea. So, the Philippine archipelago is separated in the north by Taiwan through the Bashi channel and in the South by Borneo with the Sibuto Strait as boundary.
The Philippines archipelago comprises more or less of 7,100 islands. The number varies from 7,107 to 7,641, depending on the seasonal tide. If it is high tide, some of the small islands are submerged only to resurface during low tide.
We continue to rely on the Treaty of Paris in measuring our national boundary. Under international law, states with access to the sea are given up to 12 nautical miles measured from their baseline of the outermost island as its territorial waters. Being an archipelago comprising several islands separated from each other by great bodies of water, all the waters from the outermost limit (12 miles) and drawing a straight line in between and around the islands shall form part of the country’s internal waters.
Article I of the 1973 Constitution incorporated what we have long insisted as the “Philippine Archipelagic Doctrine”. This was proposed by the country’s eminent lawyer on international law, Senator Arturo Tolentino. To quote Section 1. “The Philippine territory comprises the Philippine archipelago, with all the islands and waters embraced therein, and all the other territories belonging to the Philippines by historic rights or legal title, including the territorial sea, the air space, the subsoil, the sea-bed, the insular shelves, and the other submarine areas over which the Philippines has sovereignty or jurisdiction. The waters around, between and connecting the islands of the archipelago, irrespective of breath and dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the Philippines.”
The archipelagic doctrine is an assertion that the islands separated by bodies of water beyond 12 miles or more are within the jurisdiction of the Republic, and shall be considered internal waters such as the waters separating Mindoro Occidental and Busuanga island in Palawan, Balabac Islands in Palawan to the Tawi Tawi group of islands in the Sulu Archipelago, the passage in the Leyte Gulf going to Mindanao and passing some of the islands in Central Visayas, the Strait of San Bernardino, a body of water that separates Sorsogon and Northern Samar, and Verde Islands passing to Marinduque and Mindoro.
The Archipelagic Doctrine did not alter the Treaty of Paris except to declare as internal or territorial waters those separating two or more islands drawn in a straight line from the outermost limit of 12 nautical miles from the baseline. The archipelagic doctrine likewise prohibited the exploration, exploitation, and utilization of mineral resources within the zone including the harvesting of fish and all forms of aquatic resources.
Unfortunately, the Treaty of Paris appeared to have excluded territories in demarcating the Philippine archipelago, meaning that territories beyond the Treaty limits are considered outside the Archipelago. Many of the small islands, reefs, corals, and shoal in the South China Sea, for as long as they are delineated outside the Treaty, is up for grabs by countries littoral to the South China Sea even if it is apparent that the demarcation tends to move closer to the island of Palawan as if to purposely exclude the Spratly group of islands or deny the Philippines of its exclusive economic zone.
One of these is the Kalayaan Group Islands and the mineral-rich areas of Mischief Reef and Reed Bank. Many oil companies and our own PNOC already obtained their service contracts. The discovery of oil and natural gas is now the subject of claims from other countries, all for the fact that the area has been demarcated outside the Treaty of Paris. The discovery of high-value resources and the race to cultivate and developed aquaculture has all the more intensified the dispute. The rapid increase in trade by countries littoral to the South China Sea has completely changed the dimension to one of strategic importance not only to China but to all the great powers of the World led by the US.
Pursuant to our ratification of the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS), President Marcos issued P.D. Nos. 1596 and 1599 on June 11, 1978. Our ratification of the UNCLOS extended to member-countries having access to the sea a 200 nautical mile limit as their exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Specifically, P.D. No. 1596 declared Kalayaan a Municipality, an island in the Spratly islands, of Palawan but transformed that part of our EEZ to a regular territory of the Philippines.
When the country ratified the UNCLOS, it did not violate the territory, sovereign or territorial waters of any country littoral to the South China Sea. The greatest advantage is we enjoyed the right to exclusively exploit, develop and use all minerals and marine resources in that given area of our EEZ.