GOTCHA, Published in the Philippine Star, Monday, March 24, 2008
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita reportedly explained Thursday the recall of the Archipelagic Baselines Bill from Congress. And his words were alarming. It’s now clear it was Malacañang that derailed the passage of the law that finally would delineate RP’s territorial waters as required by the United Nations. Worse, it’s for reasons that weaken RP sovereignty.
The bill already had passed the House of Reps’ second reading in Dec., and was supposed to have been read a third and final time last Jan. From there it would have gone to a bicameral conference committee for reconciling with the Senate version. Once signed by the President, the law would then be basis for RP’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
But something odd intervened. The committee on foreign relations, dominated by Malacañang allies, in unprecedented action recalled the bill from the plenary. Supposedly there was need for further refinement at their level. But the outvoted chairman Antonio Cuenco detected the real reason. The Dept. of Foreign Affairs quietly had lobbied with the members to stop the bill in its tracks. Later Cuenco learned why, when the RP embassy sent an unsigned memo from Beijing about Chinese displeasure with the bill.
China’s peeve is expected. The bill defines RP’s archipelagic borders based not only on the Treaty of Paris, but also on later events with China. From 135 base points starting and ending with RP’s northernmost Amianan Island, boundary lines connect the old outermost isles east and south. Then the baselines go beyond Palawan and Luzon on west side. Included now in RP western territory are territories not just as ceded by Spain to America in 1898, but by virtue as well of long occupation in the South China Sea. These are: the seven islets of Kalayaan at the edge of the disputed Spratlys, and Scarborough Shoal just off Zambales. China has been claiming the whole of the Spratlys as its Nansha Islands, to include Scarborough. That claim overlaps RP’s, and even intrudes on traditional Palawan waters. In 1992 China unilaterally drew a map of its borders to include spurious historic rights over Mischief Reef, Sabina Shoal and Commodore Reef just off the Palawan coast but 900 miles from China’s southernmost island of Hainan. Based on such declaration, China in 1995 put up naval facilities in Mischief, and has tried to plant buoys on Sabina and Commodore. That RP is now drawing its own baselines, but using scientific data prescribed under UNCLOS, naturally is unsettling China.
During the House committee deliberations and two plenary readings, members scrutinized four options in delineating the territorial map. Option 1 enclosed the main archipelago as defined in 1898 and Scarborough Shoal, with Kalayaan chain as a “regime of islands.” Option 2 contained only the main archipelago, with Scarborough and Kalayaan as “regime of islands.” Option 3: main archipelago and Kalayaan, with Scarborough as “regime of islands.” The House adopted Option 4, enclosing the main archipelago, along with Scarborough and Kalayaan.
Enter Ermita. In last week’s reports, the Little President virtually admitted to having the bill tossed back to the committee. The reason, he said, was to include an amendment from a little known Commission on Maritime and Ocean Affairs that he chairs. And the amendment is for the Archipelagic Baselines Bill to use only Option 2. That is, to encompass only the main archipelago, and treat Scarborough and Kalayaan as a “regime of islands.”
“Regime of islands” means RP concedes Scarborough and Kalayaan to be disputed islets and waters. Explaining why he wants such risky classification, Ermita said Malacañang only wants to put the dispute on record without weakening RP’s territorial claim. We can only hope the former AFP vice chief of staff and defense secretary was misquoted. For he seems to be surrendering to foreigners what Filipino soldiers fought long and hard for, some to the death.
China deems Kalayaan, Scarborough and more — Mischief, Sabina, Commodore — to be its territories, based on its 1992 law. To strengthen its own claim, RP must put its occupied islands and traditional territories in its own archipelagic baselines law. For RP to rank Scarborough and Kalayaan as mere “regime of islands” is to deflate such claim. RP is starting on the wrong footing. It’s like beginning a game of basketball with a jump ball not at the center but on the opponent’s court.
Surely, Ermita knows that RP soldiers had spent grueling months on end patrolling Scarborough and Kalayaan, fending off Chinese (and other) incursions, and giving up lives to grave illness and weather. He must know that diplomacy too requires grit.
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Quote of the week, from Will Rogers: “I don’t make jokes, I just watch the government and report the facts.”
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E-mail: jariusbondoc@workmail.com
