Gov't agencies push for maritime zones bill

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the Department of Energy (DOE), and other agencies concerned with natural resources on Tuesday called for the enactment of the Maritime Zones Bill, which seeks to declare such areas in the country under Philippine jurisdiction.

They said the measure would fortify the country’s legal claims in the West Philippine Sea.

Deputy Assistant Secretary Maria Elena Maningat of the DFA Maritime and Ocean Affairs said that having a maritime zones measure would show that Philippine claims in the West Philippine Sea are based on domestic law on top of the United Nations Convention of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 2016  Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling.

“The law clarifies you can no longer say that the Philippines is not compliant with UNCLOS because of what it did in KIG box, or the Treaty of Paris [with Spain]," Maningat said during a forum on the maritime zones measure.

The UNCLOS deems the 200 nautical miles off territorial sea of countries as their exclusive economic zone.

"What we are saying now is that our basis is the baselines law and the maritime zones law,” Maningat said. 

“A Maritime Zones law clarifies where we are, [our position that] this is ours and [that] you [intruders] should not be here,” she added.

Maningat said a maritime zones law expressly providing that the Philippines’ claims is based on the UNCLOS also institutionalizes the Philippine government’s policy that claims of other countries should also be based on the UNCLOS before the Philippines agrees to any discussion.

“The maritime zones bill clarifies that on this basis, we can discuss. The playing field should be even. If their claims are based on UNCLOS and our claims are based on UNCLOS, then we have a starting point for discussion," Maningat said.

"But if their basis and our basis are not the same, we are not playing the same game, and it is difficult...what are we talking about if the rules are not the same? That’s the importance of this bill for us,” she added.

“We are putting our archipelagic house in order, and the law helps us in building support for rules-based international order and for advocacy on UNCLOS and the 2016 Arbitral [Court] award,” Maningat said.

The maritime zones bill is awaiting President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr..'s signature for it to become a law, while the Hague-based arbitration court already upheld the Philippines' EEZ in the West Philippines Sea which is 200 nautical miles off territorial sea in July 2016

The same court ruling also declared that the Panganiban (Mischief) Reef, Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal and Recto (Reed) Bank are located within the Philippines' EEZ as provided by the UNCLOS. 

Further, the same Hague-based court decision also junked China’s expansive claim of having sovereignty over the entirety of the South China Sea, as well as outlawed China’s aggression within the Philippine EEZ and in Scarborough shoal which the Hague court deemed as a common fishing ground.

The Senate and the House of Representatives ratified the bicameral conference report on the Maritime Zones bill last March 18 and 19, respectively.

Optimizing resources

Maningat said that having the maritime zones law in place will enable the government to provide appropriate funding for local government units in terms of managing maritime resources because governance is not limited on land.

“Most of budgeting is on territorial, land based [approach] size of your province, rather than the size of your maritime zone. Maybe as a maritime nation we need to migrate to that thinking of as an LGU [official], my mandate does not end here [inland] or on what I can see. It is actually a wider scope,” Maningat said.

“This [bill becoming a law] will improve our ability in asking asking for the resources that we need.”

For his part, Chief Guillermo Ansay of the DOE’s Petroleum Resources Division said foreign investors are very interested in investing in exploration in the West Philippine Sea but are wary of possible legal obstacles.

The bill, he said, “will encourage investors since most of the questions asked [to us] when we are in promotional roadshows abroad is that can we do exploration in the West Philippine Sea? But due to the incident in Recto Bank, investors are not really coming because they are wary that if they invest, they [still] can’t do anything in the area.”

Ansay was referring to June 2019 incident when a Chinese vessel rammed into a Filipino fishing boat with crew members on board.

“This [bill] will actually help us [address that problem],” Ansay said.

Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA), meanwhile,  shared Maningat's sentiments that a Maritime Zones law in place is critical in ensuring that initiatives for the protection of the country’s natural resources are well funded and are maximized.

“When we request for a budget, we are asked for the legal basis of such a request. We are [always] asked if it is within our mandate, so I think that [bill] is very critical [for us],” BFAR Undersecretary Drusila Bayate said.

“This law is for the harmonization of marine scientific analysis because what is happening right now is NAMRIA is doing its own survey, the Navy also has its own survey vessel, the UP MSI and various academic institutions have their own research activities. We need to harmonize those research activities to optimize the budget and all the resources that we have,” said Assistant Director Aaron Ching of NAMRIA's Administration and Hydrography Branch, added. —NB/KBK, GMA Integrated News