UNCLOS HANGS: Another casualty of the Moro rebels running amuck in the heartland of Mindanao is the Philippines’ being able to enjoy the benefits and protection of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Under the UNCLOS, the Philippines is entitled to its own territorial sea of 12 nautical miles from its baselines, a contiguous zone of an additional 12 nautical miles, an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles, and an extended continental shelf of up to 350 nautical miles.

The Philippines is a signatory to the convention, but among many things it still has to do is pass a law delineating its baselines from which all those maritime zones defined in the UNCLOS are to be measured.

The UN deadline to submit that law is May 13, 2009. The proposed Congressional Commission on National Territory envisioned to research and draft the bill must submit its work to Congress before the yearend for the legislature to beat the deadline.

The outbreak of hostilities and the decision of the government not to sign the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain negotiated with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front have cast doubt that the deadline would be met.

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MORO WATERS: Defining the country’s baselines is very difficult considering our being an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands with an irregular coastline that is even longer than that of the United States.

There are also the problems of defining the status of Sabah, that contiguous territory in North Borneo arbitrarily annexed by Malaysia over the protest and claim of the Philippines. This is not to mention the disputes over Kalayaan Islands (Spratlys) and Scarborough Shoal.

Now comes another complication, that of MILF rebels, aided by foreign patrons, demanding their own Bangsamoro state with territorial waters in addition to its land area.

How can Congress define the country’s baselines -- the mean low-water mark along the coast – when there is still the quarrel over the MILF’s claiming its own territorial sea (among other maritime zones) to be taken from Philippine waters?

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SCOPE: To illustrate how complicated is the issue over bodies of water that the MILF claims, let me cite from the MoA that one lawyer has dismissed as a harmless scrap of paper:

On internal waters -- The Bangsamoro Juridical Entity wants jurisdiction over management, conservation, development, protection, utilization and disposition of all natural resources, living and non-living, within its internal waters extending 15 kilometers from the coastline of the BJE domain.

On territorial waters -- The BJE wants territorial waters stretching beyond its internal waters up to the Philippine baselines southeast and southwest of mainland Mindanao. Beyond the 15-kilometer internal waters, the Central Government and the BJE shall exercise joint jurisdiction, authority and management over areas and all natural resources, living and non-living.

On sharing of minerals on territorial waters -- All potential sources of energy, petroleum in situ, hydrocarbon, natural gas and other minerals, including deposits or fields found within the territorial waters, shall be shared between the Central Government (25 percent) and the BJE (75 percent).

All areas “in Mindanao and its adjacent islands including Palawan, and the Sulu archipelago that have been recognized, and/or delineated as ancestral domain and ancestral land of the Bangsamoro people as their geographic areas, inclusive of settlements and reservations, may be formed or constituted into political subdivisions of the Bangsamoro territorial jurisdictions.”

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TERMS DEFINED: Territorial waters used to extend only to some three nautical miles (six kilometers) from shore, which was the range of a cannon shot then. That was the sea frontage that a state was believed capable of defending from shore.

In modern times, however, the “12-mile limit” has become almost universally accepted, especially with the adoption of the UNCLOS in 1982.

Let me recap the terms used in the UNCLOS starting from inland going out to sea:

* Internal waters – Bodies of water inside the country over which the state has complete jurisdiction. These include lakes, rivers and “archipelagic waters” between the islands. Even innocent passage by foreign vessels is not allowed.

* Territorial waters or territorial sea – The belt of coastal waters extending 12 nautical miles from the baseline of the coast. The territorial sea is the sovereign territory of the state, although foreign military and civilian ships are allowed innocent passage. Sovereignty also extends to the airspace over and seabed below it.

* Contiguous zone – An additional 12-nautical mile band of water from the outer edge of the territorial sea, to up to 24 nautical miles (44 km) from the baseline. The state can enforce limited control for preventing or punishing “infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws and regulations within its territory or territorial sea.”

(Considering the vast oceans fronting it, the US declared its contiguous zone on Sept. 24, 1999.)

* Exclusive economic zone – Farther out, this extends for 200 nautical miles (370 km) beyond the baselines of the territorial sea. It includes the territorial sea and its contiguous zone.

(A coastal nation has control over all economic resources within its exclusive economic zone, including fishing, mining and oil exploration. But it cannot regulate or ban passage, innocent or belligerent, beyond its territorial sea.

* Continental shelf – This extends out to the state’s continental margin, at least 200 nautical miles (370 km) from the baselines of its territorial sea. The state has control over all resources on or under its continental shelf, but none over any living organisms above the shelf beyond its exclusive economic zone.

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