In the wake of so many protestations from some government authorities over alleged incursions of Chinese survey and warships into Philippine waters allegedly without notifying Philippine defense authorities, President Duterte recently stepped in to clarify what the Philippines should expect from foreign ships entering the various ranges of waters around us, as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
The UNCLOS grants the Philippines certain rights in the waters within its territorial sea, in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), and in its Extended Continental Shelf (ECS). We have sovereignty in the territorial sea, but only sovereign rights to exploit natural resources in the land beneath the waters of the EEZ and the ECS.
The President asserted the final word when he said that only in the 12-mile territorial seas will foreign ships, commercial or warships, be obliged to notify Philippine authorities to enjoy passage or freedom of navigation. Such notification is not necessary in the EEZ or over the ECS.
Some of the confusion has been caused by information and satellite photos emanating from United States agencies and a US Naval College blogger claiming various alleged offenses by Chinese vessels in the Pagasa islands, in the Benham Rise east of Luzon in the Pacific, down to the Sibutu Passage in the south.
The Sibutu Passage is the latest point of the long-running dispute over alleged incursions into Philippine waters. The 18-mile-wide Sibutu Strait which separates the Philippines and Brunei has long been used by big ships to sail from the South China Sea to the South Pacific. As UNCLOS grants only 12 miles of territorial waters, foreign ships passing through the strait could well be miles from our waters.
Last Thursday, Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio raised another point that should be considered by those among out officials warning against intrusions by foreign ships. The UNCLOS, he said, allows foreign ships to make “innocent passage” through teritorial or archipelagic waters. Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin Jr. immediately responded that because of this right of “innocent passage,” the President’s directive calling for notification by foreign ships in Philippine territorial waters may not be easily enforced.
The President’s directive clearly needs some study. We cannot do, as presidential spokesman Salvado Panelo said rather cockily, “Either we get compliance in a friendly manner or we enforce it in an unfriendly manner.”