Miriam to kill baseline bills

MANILA, Philippines – After one hearing, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said yesterday she would kill the baseline bills pending before the Senate and file a committee report before the plenary next week calling for the establishment of a commission that would study the problems on national territory and recommend appropriate action.

Santiago said she and the resource persons had reached a consensus that the issue must first be studied carefully before discussing the bills because of many possible consequences.

However, Santiago said the commission would be mandated to finish its job before the May 2009 deadline to file the Philippine claim for extended continental shelf under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Former University of the Philippines’ College of Law dean Merlin Magallona, one of those invited to attend the hearing, stressed the need for the executive and legislative branches of government to get their act together to resolve the “crisis” on national territory.

He said Congress must ensure that those who would sit in a commission would be able to address the issues through their time and expertise.

“In my case since I am chair of the committee I am certainly not going to act on them. That is one way sometimes of killing a bill or I’ll simply give them the lowest priority. I have such a long, long list of priority treaties that need concurrence of the Senate,” Santiago said.

She said it would not matter if the House of Representatives would not agree to her proposed commission, adding she could just drop the word “joint” in the title of the body to look into the national territory.

“I must say that Dean Magallona’s presentation is so impressive that I will have to recommend strongly to our colleagues in both committees and then to the Senate in plenary session that we must first have either an executive or legislative commission on national territory to study all of these problems because the legislators do not necessarily have the technical expertise to tackle questions of this magnitude,” Santiago said.

Magallona said the UNCLOS, which allows states to claim extended continental shelf, was in conflict with the Constitution and posed a “dilemma” on how the Philippines should establish its baselines to its best interest.

Others who attended were Undersecretary Rafael Seguis of the Office of the Undersecretary for Special and Ocean Concerns, Commission on Maritime and Ocean Affairs Secretariat Secretary General Henry Bensurto, Undersecretary Milo Ibrado of the National Security Council and National Mapping and Resource Information Authority  Administrator Diony Ventura.

The CMOA was asked to relay to the Palace the proposed commission and see how best it could function to expedite the country’s establishment of new baselines.

Magallona said House Bill No. 3216 filed by Cebu Rep. Antonio Cuenco was very limited as it simply declared the Philippines as an archipelagic state and included the Kalayaan Island Group (known as Spratlys) and the Scarborough Shoal in the country’s baselines.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. filed the same bill as Cuenco’s while Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV proposed a measure that would include Scarborough Shoal in the baselines.

The baselines will be the basis of determining the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone and the additional 150-nautical mile extended continental shelf.

Under the Constitution, the Philippines is an archipelago and the waters in between and dividing the islands are considered internal waters, which means that the sovereignty of the country over land extends to the internal waters.

But Magallona said under the UNCLOS, the category of internal waters was transformed or changed into archipelagic waters.

“As archipelagic waters it is subject to rights of innocent passage. The UNCLOS says the Philippines will have sovereignty over these waters but subject to rights of innocent passage. A right of innocent passage is an objective right, it is a right that pertains to all states with respect to right of navigation. So you have rights of innocent passage to territorial seas, you also have rights of innocent passage in what the Philippine Constitution says are internal waters,” Magallona said.

Magallona said how the baselines would be established, either through the Treaty of Paris as stated in the Constitution or the UNCLOS, must be resolved immediately by the executive and legislative departments.

But with full application of the UNCLOS, Magallona also said there would be serious implications especially on environment and national security because of the right to innocent passage in the internal waters of an archipelagic state.

He said the government must be able to meet the May 2009 deadline and all the technical and scientific requirements in making claims for the extended continental shelf.

Santiago said that with her planned resolution, the baseline bills could now be considered dead in the water.