Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte is prodding the House of Representatives to approve one of his pet measures amid the continued intrusion of Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS). Filed way back in July 2022 or at the start of the 19th Congress, House Bill ((HB) No.1095 or the proposed “Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act", remains relevant. Through the measure, Villafuerte believes the Congress can help the Marcos administration better protect the country against such non-stop unauthorized presence in Philippine waters. The bill seeks to establish the country's archipelagic sea lanes as espoused in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and other relevant international conventions. This would set the lanes in which foreign merchant ships and warships and aircraft can pass. Villafuerte, president of the National Unity Party (NUP), highlighted his bill after the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) reported on its FaceBook page last week the “continuing unauthorized presence” of “a People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA) Navy vessel, China Coast Guard (CCG) vessel 5203 and 42 suspected Chinese Maritime Militia (CMM) vessels anchored in the vicinity of Pag-asa Island". According to the PCG, these Chinese vessels were about 4.5 to 8 nautical miles (NM) off Pag-asa, or “clearly inside the land feature’s 12 NM territorial sea” as set in the 1982 UNCLOS and the 2016 Arbitral Award in favor of the Philippines by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, Netherlands. Pag-asa Island is the largest island in the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) in Palawan. “Under UNCLOS, an archipelagic State has sovereignty over its archipelagic waters and the airspace above it, as well as its seabed and subsoil. The archipelagic State may designate sea lanes and air routes suitable for the continuous and expeditious passage of ships and aircraft through or over its archipelagic waters and the adjacent territorial sea,” said Villafuerte in HB No.1095, which he authored with other Camarines Sur-based solons. These authors stressed in their bill that in pursuit of its duty to protect its maritime domain, the State shall: Implement and adhere to the provisions of the 1982 UNCLOS and relevant international conventions to which the Philippines is a party, and minimize the routes and areas that shall be utilized and accessed by foreign vessels and foreign registered aircraft for the exercise of archipelagic sea lanes passage. They pointed out that while Republic Act  (RA) No. 9255 effectively delineated the archipelagic baselines of the Philippines, this law “failed to provide and establish the archipelagic sea lanes of the Philippines,” as espoused in Article 53 of  UNCLOS. “With its waters linked to important and busy navigational routes, it is imperative that the Philippines designate its archipelagic sea lanes in consideration of its own security, economic and environmental interests,” Villafuerte said. Hence, he said, the need for a measure like HB 1095 to “set the conditions and requirements for foreign ships and aircraft exercising their right to archipelagic sea lanes passage and the conduct of oceanographic or hydrographic surveys". HB No.1095 likewise sets “prohibitions on the fishing, loading, unloading of persons, goods or currency in Philippine territory,” and “for foreign ships to refrain from expelling oil or other toxic substances into the Philippine marine environment". Camarines Sur Reps. Miguel Luis Villafuerte (5th district) and Tsuyoshi Anthony Horibata (1st district), and Bicol Saro Party-list co-authored the measure, which remains pending at the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.