PH asks UN to extend its boundary in West Philippine Sea

The Philippines has officially asked the United Nations to extend its boundary farther into the disputed South China Sea, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Saturday, in a move rejecting China's massive claim over the potentially-rich waters.

In a statement, the DFA said the country, through the Philippine Mission to the UN in New York, on June 14 "submitted information to the United Nations (UN) Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) to register the country’s entitlement to an extended continental shelf (ECS) in the West Palawan Region in the West Philippine Sea/South China Sea.."

Citing Article 76 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Manila said "a coastal State such as the Philippines is entitled to establish the outer limits of its continental shelf comprising the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas extending beyond 200 nautical miles (NM) but not to exceed 350 NM from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured."

CLCS is a body that governs the implementation of the UNCLOS on the establishment of the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines.

DFA Assec for Maritime and Ocean Affairs Marshall Louis M. Alferez and PH Perm. Rep. to the UN Antonio Manuel R. Lagdameo officially made the extended continental shelf submission at the UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea on 14 June 2024 in New York. pic.twitter.com/UMAUpm2NsO

— DFA Philippines ???????? (@DFAPHL) June 14, 2024

Manila's submission came amid increasingly aggressive Chinese actions in the South China Sea that prompted serious concerns and condemnations from several countries after China’s coast guard vessels have repeatedly blasted water cannons, used military-grade lasers and blocked Philippine government ships from conducting resupply missions from a shoal, locally called Ayungin or Second Thomas Shoal, that Beijing claims as its own. Incidents of collision between Chinese and Filipino vessels and several injuries from the Philippine side have also been reported.

China has also been harassing Philippine vessels and fishermen and installed barriers at the Scarborough Shoal (Bajo de Masinloc or Panatag Shoal), which lies within Manila’s exclusive economic zone under a United Nations maritime convention.

China also said it is enforcing a new regulation that takes effect on June 15 that will allow its coast guard to detain without trial so-called foreign "trespassers" in the South China Sea.

Manila uses the name West Philippine Sea for parts of the South China that falls within its Exclusive Economic Zone under the UNCLOS.

“Incidents in the waters tend to overshadow the importance of what lies beneath," DFA Assistant Secretary for Maritime and Ocean Affairs Marshall Louis said. “The seabed and the subsoil extending from our archipelago up the maximum extent allowed by UNCLOS hold significant potential resources that will benefit our nation and our people for generations to come. Today we secure our future by making a manifestation of our exclusive right to explore and exploit natural resources in our ECS entitlement.”

This is the second time the Philippines has made a submission on an ECS entitlement. In April 2009, the Philippines made a partial submission on the Philippine Rise, which the CLCS validated in 2012, resulting in an additional 135,506 square kilometers of seabed area for the Philippines.

Alferez said the new submission in the West Philippine Sea "is a declaration not only of the Philippines’ maritime entitlements under UNCLOS but also of the country’s commitment to the responsible application of its processes."

An EEZ allows coastal nations the right to explore, manage and exploit resources within 200 nautical miles from their shores.

Under UNCLOS, coastal states can make a claim to an ‘extended continental shelf’ beyond the 200 nautical mile outer limit of their EEZ provided that it submits technical information and study to the CLCS.

The DFA said the National Mapping and Resource Information Agency (NAMRIA) led the Extended Continental Shelf Technical Working Group (ECS-TWG) that worked on the submission for over a decade and a half.

NAMRIA Administrator Peter Tiangco said the working group was responsible for the gathering and processing of data on geodetic and hydrographic information, and geophysical and geological information to substantiate the submission.

Former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio, who was among the Filipino officials who led the Philippines' arbitral tribunal victory against China in 2016, said the extended continental shelf starts where the EEZ ends. 

The coastal state, he added, "has exclusive right to exploit the non-living resources in the ECS, like oil, gas and other mineral resources."

It also has the exclusive right to exploit in the ECS sedentary species or living organisms that become immobile at the harvestable stage — like giant clams, which could no longer move as they mature.

Alferez called the submission a significant move as it secured the Philippines’ sovereign rights and maritime jurisdictions in the West Philippine Sea.

"The 2016 Award on the South China Sea Arbitration confirmed the Philippines’ maritime entitlements and rejected those that exceeded geographic and substantive limits under UNCLOS," he said.

China, which virtually claims the South China Sea nearly in its entirety, has yet to respond to a GMA News Online request for comment.

A vital trading and shipping lane, the South China Sea, dotted with rocks, shoals and reefs where rich oil and mineral deposits were found, are claimed in part or in whole by the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan.

China’s vast territorial claims in the waters have sparked tensions and violent confrontations with smaller claimants, like the Philippines and Vietnam.

In 2016, the Philippines largely won a landmark case against China’s massive claim in the waters before an arbitration tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, but Beijing refused to participate in the arbitration process and recognize the ruling.

The tribunal ruled that none of the features in the Spratlys, a group of islands, islets, reefs, and atolls lying west of Palawan province, was entitled to an EEZ or continental shelf of its own.

Alferez said the Philippine submission "does not prejudice discussions with relevant coastal States that may have legitimate ECS claims measured from their respective lawful baselines under UNCLOS," leaving the door open to negotiations with its neighbors in cases where their claims to an extended continental shelf overlapped.

Malaysia and Vietnam have previously filed joint and individual submissions for extended continental shelf in the South China Sea, prompting angry protests from Beijing.

“We consider our submission as a step in discussing delimitation matters and other forms of cooperation moving forward. What is important is the Philippines puts on record the maximum extent of our entitlement," Alferez said.

Ambassador Antonio Lagdameo, Permanent Representative of the Philippine Mission to the United Nations in New York, said the submission “can reinvigorate efforts of States to demonstrate their readiness to pursue UNCLOS processes in the determination of maritime entitlements and promote a rules based international order.” —KG, GMA Integrated News