MANY maps that we use in our schools and offices still describe the seas west of the Philippine archipelago as the "South China Sea."
Recognizing this, Senator Francis Tolentino has filed Senate Bill No. 405 which seeks to institutionalize the West Philippine Sea by formalizing the designation of the said nomenclature as part of the laws of the land.
The senator believes that the maritime area—including the air space, seabed, and subsoil— on the western side of the Philippine archipelago should be named as the “West Philippine Sea” or “Kanlurang Dagat ng Pilipinas” as part of the Philippines’ “inherent right to designate the names of its maritime areas,” and consistent with the 2016 Award of the Arbitral Tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).
In 2016, The Hague Tribunal invalidated Beijing’s “Nine-dash line” doctrine over the entire South China Sea (SCS) region following an arbitration case filed by the Philippine government on January 22, 2013. China’s nine-dash line unilaterally encroached territories of other Southeast Asian countries, including the West Philippine Sea, the bill claimed.
The proposal is in response to the archipelagic doctrine embodied under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), in which the Philippines is granted a territorial sea of up to 12 nautical miles, a contiguous zone of up to 24 nautical miles, and an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of up to 200 nautical miles where the West Philippine Sea is located.
Tolentino, now the chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, wants to "assert our sovereign rights over our EEZ for the purpose of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, of the waters superjacent to the seabed and of the seabed and subsoil of our EEZ with the concomitant duty to protect and preserve the marine environment therein."
The proposed law also affirms that the territories under the West Philippine Sea includes the Luzon Sea and the waters around, within, and adjacent to the Kalayaan Island Group in Palawan and Bajo de Masinloc, also known as Scarborough Shoal in Zambales, among others.
Finally, to address the felt need for "politically correct" maps of the Philippines, the Tolentino bill mandates the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) to produce and to publish charts and maps of the Philippines reflecting the nomenclature “West Philippine Sea” or the “Kanlurang Dagat ng Pilipinas.”
Once passed as a law, the measure commands the government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs, to deposit a copy of the future Act and other relevant documents with the Secretary General of the United Nations and notify accordingly all relevant International and intergovernmental organizations, such as the United Nations Statistical Commission, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN), and the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO).
The government has always claimed in international forums about our correct and just claim in the West Philippine Sea, without realizing that there is indeed a need for legislation to bolster our position, which the Tolentino bill seeks to provide.