A former Supreme Court (SC) magistrate said that the proposed measure to amend the baselines law will protect the country’s claims on Pag-asa Island in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
Francis Jardeleza, a retired SC associate justice, explained that Pag-asa Island is not an island in a “technical sense” since there are no actual islands in the Spratlys Islands--only "rocks".
“The baselines law is a law which measures the 200 nautical miles that we have from our baselines that is the extent of the sea over which we have so-called sovereign rights. For example from Luzon you measure 200 nautical miles,” Jardeleza said in an interview over CNN Philippines’ The Source on Monday, June 12, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the Philippines' historic arbitration victory against China.
“The importance of the tribunal award is the respect to these small features these are really rocks. For example the Pag-asa Island it is not an island in a technical sense. The tribunal said it is a rock so it has only 15 nautical miles. The present law that we have does not measure the territorial sea of Pag-asa of these other features that we claim,” he added.
The "tribunal" that Jardeleza was referring to was the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which in July 2016 ruled in favor of the Philippines after it nullified China’s expansive nine-dash line claim over the South China Sea (SCS). The WPS is located within the SCS.
Beijing, however, refused to recognize the tribunal’s decision and pressed ahead with its controversial reclamation works in the disputed territory.
Jardeleza underscored the importance of measuring by specific “meets and bounds” the extent of the country’s territorial sea particularly in the contested features in order to know what is within the territorial sea.
“What if a reef is also claimed by another party, what if another country occupies a reef for example then arguably they have different nautical miles and some of these reefs are within our territorial sea? It is important to have clarity to determine the meets and bounds which territorial sea begins from what baseline,” Jardeleza said.
The former SC justice bared that there are many suggestions and proposals, however, the baselines law amendment is the “most practical and least costly.”
“We are not saying that our proposal is the only proposal that is why we are asking that the President will look into it,” he said.
Jardeleza, along with international law consultant Melissa Loja and professor Romel Bagares, drafted the proposed measure to identify by name and coordinates at least 100 features being claimed and occupied in the WPS.
The proposed measure also adopts normal baselines around each feature that qualifies as a high-tide elevation and reiterates continuing sovereignty rights over these features.
Last June 10, President Duterte expressed willingness to look into the proposed amendments to the country’s baselines law that supposedly aim to strengthen the nation’s claim in the WPS.
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