Press Release
February 3, 2009

ENRILE TO DEFEND SENATE BASELINES BILL

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile yesterday was designated to defend the Senate version of the bill in the Bicameral Conference Committee which excludes the Kalayaan islands from the archipelagic baselines of the Philippines in an effort to comply with the requirements of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Enrile said that the Senate panel in the bicameral committee is prepared to argue its point during the bicameral meeting with the House contingent which is proposing another bill which would include the Kalayaan island group within the country's territorial baselines.

"We will discuss in the bicameral as to which version should be used to become the law of the land," Enrile said. He did not close the door on the Senate version. "Nothing is impossible. (It is) a matter of arguing the position."

Explaining the Senate version, Enrile said: "In the case of the bill that I filed and which the Foreign Relations adopted with some amendments, it is in accordance with the law of the sea, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. We are not saying that Kalayaan internally -- from an internal law viewpoint -- is not considered by the Philippines as its property and also Scarborough. But there are also other claimants and we have to deal with that problem both from the viewpoint of our internal law which is disputed by other countries and from the viewpoint of the international law which they will recognize based on the concept of 'regime of islands' under the UNCLOS." Besides the Philippines, the Kalayaan Islands and the Scarborough shoals are being claimed as part of the Spratly group of islands by five other countries. These are China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei. In the Senate version, the Kalayaan and Scarborough islands are described as a "regime of islands".

Enrile pointed out that "We do not have the battleships and squadrons to enforce our claim of absolute entitlement over these islands."

He stressed that "the Senate version is the more realistic approach to the problem. We all agreed that we consider Kalayaan as ours. All Filipinos agree on that but it is a question of legal engineering. How do you approach the problem in relation to the claims of other countries?"

The House bill on the other hand insists that the Kalayaan group and the Scarborough shelf are part of the territory of the Philippine archipelago. The Spratly group, which includes these islands, is said to be rich in valuable mineral deposits, including oil.

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