Including internal waters, archipelagic waters, territorial sea, contiguous zone
The House of Representatives approved on Tuesday a bill defining the maritime zones of the country to which it can exercise sovereign rights.
Congressmen unanimously approved on third and final reading House Bill 4185 that describes the maritime zones of the Philippines as the following: internal waters, archipelagic waters, territorial sea, contiguous zone, exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.
Authored by Paranaque City Rep. Roilo Golez, HB 4185 is a Malacanang-certified bill that states a general declaration of and defines the maritime zones under the jurisdiction of the Philippines.
“As such, the passage of this proposed legislative measure has for its aim the provision of the necessary flexibility in the enactment of subsequent laws pertinent to the rights and obligations that the Philippines is entitled to and should exercise over its own maritime zones in accordance with the UNCLOS,” Golez explained.
The Philippines is a signatory of the 1982 UNCLOS or the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Golez stressed that approval of the bill will “effectuate the ends” for which the Philippines, being a sovereign coastal state, entered into as signatory and party to the UNCLOS.
The approval of the bill also guarantees the protection of maritime rights of the country.
Under the bill, internal waters will refer to waters on the landward side of the archipelagic baselines not forming part of the Archipelagic Waters and delimited in accordance with Article 50 of the 1982 UNCLOS.
On the other hand, archipelagic waters of the Philippines refers to the waters on the landward side of the archipelagic baselines except as provided as those internal waters.
According to Golez, the territorial sea of the Philippines refers to the “belt of sea measured 12 nautical miles from the baselines or from the low waterline, as the case may be.
The bill also states that the contiguous zone of the Philippines will refer to waters beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea and up to the extent of 24 nautical miles from the baselines or from the low water line.
The exclusive economic zone refers to the waters beyond and adjacent to its territorial sea and up to the extent of 200 nautical miles from the baselines or from the low water line, as the case may be.
Golez said the continental shelf, as defined in the measure, comprises the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond its territorial sea throughout the natural prolongation of its land territory to the outer edge of the continent margin.
The continent shelf may also be referred to a distance of 200 nautical miles form the baselines from which the “breadth of the territorial sea is measured, where the outer edge of the continental margin does not extend up to that distance.”
The continental shelves extending beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines will be delineated in accordance with Section 76 of the UNCLOS, Golez stated.
The bill, Golez said, stresses that the Philippines will exercise sovereign rights over the area covered by continental shelf. Government may explore and exploit “living and non-living, organic or non-organic resources” in the said area.
If the defined maritime zones overlap with the maritime zones claimed by other countries, the Philippines will “delimit” contested zones and move to resolve the issue in accordance with international law.
Source: Manila Bulletin
