Cagayan de Oro City Representative Rufus Rodriguez urged Congress on Tuesday to finally enact a law defining the Philippines’ maritime borders, including its 200-mile exclusive economic zone.

He made the appeal in light of the reported agreement between the Philippines and Indonesia on guidelines for defining their overlapping territorial limits. The accord was a result of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s recent trip to Jakarta.

Rodriguez stressed in a statement that, “the projected talks between the Philippines and our neighbor Indonesia should prompt Congress to now approve a maritime zones bill.”

According to him, such a law  would act as the foundation for negotiations on territorial disputes between and among the countries that have claimed islets and maritime territories in the South China Sea.

The lawmaker said, “It will also be our weapon in enforcing our laws, exploring resources and protecting our fishermen in these areas.”

He added that Congress should not be concerned about how China would respond if such a law was passed.

“Enacting it is our right under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Let us not worry about what the Chinese will say. Let us think of our own national interest,” Rodriguez continued.

The Mindanao lawmaker has filed House Bill (HB) No. 2467, which is titled, “An Act declaring the maritime zones under the jurisdiction of the Philippines.”  He introduced the legislation in the prior Congress. The Senate did nothing after the House of Representatives passed it.

The Chinese-occupied Scarborough or Panatag Shoal off Zambales and Pangasinan, locally known as Bajo de Masinloc, is included in Rodriguez’s proposed definition of the country’s maritime territory.

This region is routinely patrolled by the Chinese Coast Guard, which Beijing took control of in 2012 following a standoff between Chinese and Philippine Coast Guard vessels. 

As a party to and signatory to the 1983 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Rodriguez said in HB 2467 that the Philippines “recognizes the establishment of various maritime zones and jurisdiction of coastal states, including its own, over which sovereignty and appurtenant sovereign rights can be exercised.”

He said that as a result, the Philippines “exercises sovereignty over its internal waters, archipelagic waters, territorial sea and airspace over it, as well as its seabed and subsoil in accordance with UNCLOS and other existing laws and treaties.”

According to the House leader, the country also has sovereign authority over its “contiguous zone, exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, including the right to explore and exploit living and nonliving, organic or nonorganic resources.”

He emphasized that the UNCLOS permits party-states specify their maritime borders.

Under the Rodriguez bill, aside from its internal and archipelagic waters and territorial sea, the country’s maritime territory includes its 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) that is measured from its shoreline and its continental shelf.

China, which claims a sizable portion of the Philippine EEZ, has turned some disputed islets in that region into military outposts.

Photo Credit: Facebook/RufusBRodriguez