The House of Representatives on Monday approved on third and final reading a bill seeking to declare the maritime zones of the Philippines under its jurisdiction in order to establish the legal bases by which social, economic, commercial, and other activities may be conducted in those areas.
Voting 284 affirmative, 0 negative without abstention, the chamber approved House Bill (HB) 7819 or the proposed Philippine Maritime Zones Act.
“This bill will provide flexibility in enacting laws pertinent to the rights and obligations that the Philippines can exercise over its maritime zone,” House Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez said.
“Aside from this, the bill also provides sovereign rights over these maritime zones, thus establishing the Philippines’ exclusive rights to explore and exploit living and nonliving resources found in these zones, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and other existing laws and treaties,” Romualdez added.
Some of the principal authors of the bill are Reps. Rufus Rodriguez, Maria Rachael Arenas, Francisco Benitez, Francisco Paolo Ortega V, and others.
According to HB 7819, maritime zones of the Philippines comprise the internal waters, archipelagic waters, territorial sea, contiguous zone, exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and continental shelf.
These were defined in the bill, which also requires all territories of the Philippines to generate their respective maritime zones in accordance with international law.
The bill also provides for the exercise of jurisdiction over these zones with regard to rights and duties provided for in the UNCLOS. It also states that the rights of the Philippines relative to its maritime zones and entitlements shall be exercised in accordance with the UNCLOS, and the awards rendered by the Arbitral Tribunal in Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) Case 23 No. 2013-19, in the matter of the South China Sea Arbitration between the Republic of the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China, handed down on July 12, 2016, at The Hague.
Image credits: AP/Aaron Favila
