Related story: China sends large patrol boat to Spratly islands
by Tessa Jamandre
VERA Files
The Philippines will soon initiate border talks with its neighbors and finally confront territorial issues it has long avoided, the most contentious being the dispute with Malaysia over Sabah, now that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has signed the Philippine Archipelagic Baseline Law.
The Baseline Law defines the limits of Philippine territory. It is these limits that will determine the country’s extended continental shelf, which is believed to contain substantial amounts of oil, natural gas, minerals and polymetals.
The Philippines has less than two months to beat the May 13, 2009 deadline for the submission of its claim over the extended continental shelf before the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS). The UN body, however, will not rule on a claim if it involves disputed territory.
The United Nations defines the continental shelf as the “the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond its territorial sea” up to 200 nautical miles from the archipelagic baseline. A continental shelf that goes beyond 200 nautical miles is called the extended continental shelf. Archipelagic states like the Philippines may claim an extended continental shelf of up to 350 nautical miles from the baseline.
But the country’s extended continental shelf overlaps with those of seven of its neighbors: Japan, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Palau, Malaysia and Indonesia. Of these seven, the government sees its issues with Malaysia as the most difficult to resolve, because of its claim over Sabah.
“Now we have a clear idea of what that theoretical outer limit is. I say theoretical because it will still be finalized by the UN body since that theoretical outer limit overlaps (with other countries). So that will be subject to bilateral negotiations,” said lawyer Henry Bensurto, secretary-general of the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Center for Maritime and Ocean Affairs (CMOA). He added that the government would soon send feelers for possible talks.
The Sabah claim
The Philippines and Malaysia have conflicting claims over Sabah, the northern part of Borneo. The distance between Sitangkai, the southernmost village of the province of Tawi-Tawi, and Manakalan or Nala, a coastal village in east Sabah, is only some 50 kilometers.
Sabah was ceded by the Sultan of Brunei to the Sultanate of Sulu, which ruled Sabah until it was leased to the British North Borneo Company in 1878. This lease continued until the formation of the Malaysian federation in 1963. The Malaysian claim is based on a perpetual lease. The Malaysian government is still paying an annual rent of 5,300 Malaysian ringgit, or less than P70,000.
“It’s a tricky question. There is an overlap if … we accept that Sabah is theirs. So there is a certain discomfort. It’s a difficult question. If we agree (that there is an overlapping claim), that means we accept Sabah is theirs,” Bensurto said.
It was in 1962 during the presidency of Arroyo’s father Diosdado Macapagal that the Philippines formally asserted that Sabah was part of its territory, based on the claims of the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu, who had ceded proprietary rights to the Philippines. But the Sabah issue had been shelved for the sake of peaceful co-existence between the two countries.
Palmas Island
Another territorial dispute that needs to be resolved is the country’s boundary with Indonesia, which was already in Maritime Border Delimitation negotiations with the Philippines. The talks, however, were suspended because the Philippines had to settle the baseline issue first.
The point of reference in the talks with Indonesia is Palmas Island, which lies only 47 nautical miles east northeast of Saranggani province in Mindanao. The Treaty of Paris included Palmas Island, or Pulau Miangas to the Indonesians, within the Philippine territory. An arbitration ruling of the International Court of Justice in 1928, however, determined that Palmas belongs to Indonesia.
But while Philippine archipelagic baselines skirted Palmas Island, the country will still have to share an economic zone with Indonesia, given that the distance between them is less than 200 nautical miles. The exclusive economic zone is the area 200 nautical miles from the baselines seaward.
“If they (Indonesians) claim 200 nautical miles, they will cover part of our territory in the same way that if we claim 200 nautical miles, we will cover their area. So the challenge there is where to draw the line,” Bensurto said.
South China Sea
The cluster of islands in the South China Sea referred to as the Spratlys is claimed in part by the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei, while Vietnam and China claim the whole island-group.
The Philippines will have to square off with China and Vietnam over the Spratlys, also known as the Kalayaan Island Group, which the Philippine Archipelagic Baseline Law defined as a regime of islands within Philippine territory.
Bensurto explained there will not really be any overlapping claims with mainland China on the matter of the extended continental shelf. But because China is claiming the whole of the South China Sea, the Philippines will have to negotiate.
Another complication is seen with Taiwan. Since the Philippines adheres to the one-China policy that doesn’t recognize Taiwan as a state and only maintains diplomatic relations with the mainland, an overlap of the country’s extended continental shelf with Taiwan puts the Philippines in a serious dilemma. Relations between the Philippines and Taiwan are limited to cultural and economic matters.
Partial claim
Because these territorial disputes remain unresolved, the Philippines will have to make only a partial submission of the claim to its extended continental shelf to the UN-CLCS come the May 13 deadline.
Bensurto explained that a partial submission would effectively stop the clock, and buy the government time to settle disputes over controversial areas. “For the controversial areas we don’t give up any claim but we allow time, process, diplomacy or whatever tools available to resolve it because anyway that is not going to be subject to any deadline,” Bensurto said.
The country’s extended continental shelf may also overlap with Japan in the north and Palau in the southwest. All these overlaps that will be projected from the newly enacted baselines law will have to be subject to border delimitation agreements before a complete and final submission to the UN is made.
Bensurto said that if an agreement is reached in border talks, then the Philippines can either submit unilaterally or jointly with the country concerned. ###
(VERA Files is the work of veteran journalists taking a deeper look at current issues. Vera is Latin for “true.”)
Ah! This is one of my favourite Philippine territorial issue! I’m glad the Philippines have finally taken their cojones in their hands and tackle the issue.
I just hope that the Malaysians will not succeed in paying off “negotiators” or “coordinators” from the Philippines with holiday homes or condo units in Sabah…
Did you know that there is a “buzz” going around that the Malaysians gifted Esperon with a substantial type of present when he lead the “peace talks nego” with the Malaysians…
To be perfectly honest, there’s no evidence that Esperon owns something of consequence in Malaysia but it’s difficult not to suspect Gloria’s thieving generals of malfaisance!
Yes, Anna. I had to delete the other info. Just to avoid legal complications. Thanks. very interesting
Hmmm, Asspweron gets left and right bounties. I heard he also has some ranches in Australia. Sucker!
I hope one day this asspweron will share a cell with the Garcias!
I’m not a friend of Esperon and I’d be the last person to defend him. But I would not really put value on this rumor. I don’t think he would be that brazen.
I hope so Ellen.
Ana talks about cojones … that is not enough. There must be muscle to back up arguments on border talks. I do not mean the military capability of the negotiator. The muscle referred to here is integrity and legitimacy of government for it to have any viable leg to stand on. Would the Malaysians or Vietnamese talk with Ali Baba?
kejotee: let us not forget that AliBaba has her own forty thieves (baka sobra pa nga)..putot lang pero makamandag..small but terrible…
Lakandula is a criminal and traitor to the filipino people,and he is the ancestor of Gloria bakit ba niya ginagaya ang ninuno niya.
Correction please, but Lakandula is not an ancestor of the dorobo. She just claims so for want of legitimacy of her claim of royalty even when in fact she is merely dugong aso.
Lakandula’s descendants were known to have taken the family name of Capulong, not Macapagal! Thus, former ICJ Judge Romy Capulong has a more legitimate claim of lineage to the former Manila Chieftain, not the dorobo!!! 😛
kazuki, hindi siguro si Lakandula, although I’ve heard of that claim before.
Baka si Lakantuta!
At least si Romy Capulong does wants not to copy lakandula who is a traitor,well why does gloria glorify that rich traitor.
Any claims on Sabah, Mianggas, Spratlys and Scarbourough are closed cases and not in our favor. No ally will even look twice and lift a finger to our claims. Having to spend our silava at any forum will only turn out as junkets. We are not mature enough yet in any diplomatic exercise.
Closed cases, Valdemar, and not in our favor? The last time I checked, we occupy more islands (with humans, not inanimate markers) than any of the claimant countries in Spratlys. China has soldiers in Paracels but it does not involve us since it is not even in the Spratlys.
Tongue,
Even if it takes a thousand years, China carry out that policy of protracted revolution and attrition. I agree we have human preponderance of temporary occupancy like in Sabah regularly purged, squads of marines in those Spratlys regularly supplied with feeds and changed to break the monotony of sleepless nights due to heavy traffic of giant turtles,or elude bird droppings, neutralizing boredom with gin flasks. It costs us heavily just to watch over those islands and we are not even at war yet. Pretty soon the sands of Pagasa will recede with the airfield. The new aircraft carrier will be alongside it, with a thousand men. Did we give a hoot when the Vietcong swarm took over one of our islands there?
Pihado ang tatay ni Dorobo inis na inis sa kaniya for claiming descendancy from a small tim chieftain.
Iyong tatay kasi nag-claim na nga na descendant sila ni Alexander the Great of Mesopotamia! Tangnanay na mag-anak na iyan! Di pa sabihin na lang na dugong aso sila.
Ang hilig pang magnakaw ng ancestry! Pati iyong asawa, ganoon din. Kingpin naman daw ng Marikina. Iyong pala, jueteng king lang pala panahon pa ni Mahoma!
Yup, OK si Romy Capulong. Sa palagay ko kaya siya gustong ipaligpit para matupad na ang pangarap ni power-grabber na hindi na siya illegitimate claimant na descendant siya ni Lakandula by wiping out the legitimate descndants of the chieftain, the Capulongs now prominently led by Romy. 😛
Tongue: Baka si Lakantuta!
*****
Bwahahahahaha! OK talaga ang sense of humor mo, Tongue. Arp, arp, bowwowowowow!
Why China is not too cocky in their lake, the South China Sea: http://tinyurl.com/c4oely
Hindi malayo na $2,000,000 nga ang areglo. At hindi rin mas malayo na yung nagbugaw na ayusin ang gusot, binulsa na yung pera at $2,000, or $20,000 lang ang inabot kay Nicole 🙂 Malay natin, instead of an immigrant visa, baka US citizenship pa!
Unless, a small apartment plus $2,000 a month for a 3-year contract as personal secretary ni Bill Clinton? 🙂
Ha, ha…even Nicole’s payment has tongpats. $2,000,000 was given but only $2,000 reached Nicole.