Friday, May 09, 2008 House agrees to creation of national territory body
THE House of Representatives has acceded to the proposal of Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago to form a Congressional Commission on National Territory (CCNT) to study the country’s territorial claims in the disputed Spratly islands despite fears that this is just a ploy to stop Congress from declaring the Philippines’ archipelagic baseline.
“It’s best to coordinate with her (Santiago) committee because we may get stuck with nothing if we do not agree and that could be worse,” Speaker Prospero Nograles said.
The Senate committee on foreign relations has already approved Santiago’s resolution creating the joint commission which would be tasked to submit not later than December 31 a written report on national territory “to serve as a background paper for deliberations on the various bills seeking to define archipelagic baselines.”
Cebu Representative Antonio Cuenco, chairman of the House committee on foreign affairs, has said Santiago appears to be leaning towards killing House Bill (HB) 3216 which defines the Philippines' territorial baseline.
Cuenco said instead of trying to expedite the measure’s passage, Santiago is insisting on holding a joint congressional committee hearing which is “one way of killing the bill.”
He said while he would not want to impute any malice on Santiago's motive, her action was still aimed at derailing the measure's passage.
Since the joint hearing will take so much time for debates, Cuenco warned that the government might not beat the May 2009 deadline set by the Unite Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).
Nograles however said the people have nothing to worry about since the government would still be able to meet the deadline. “There’s still plenty of time,” he said.
Under HB 3216 -- which has been waiting for final approval since last December -- the country's archipelagic baseline would include the Kalayaan Island Group and the Scarborough Shoal.
The voting on HB 3216 was stalled after Nograles convinced congressmen to give him at least three weeks to talk the executive branch and the Senate into supporting the bill and include it in the agenda of the Legislative-Executive and Development Advisory Council (Ledac).
The House’s decision came after Malacañang proposed that the KIG and the Scarborough Shoal be treated as mere “regime of islands” following Beijing’s objection to HB 3216 in a "note" to the Philippine Embassy in Beijing last December.
The note said China, one of the many claimants of the territory, was "shocked and gravely concerned" and requested the clarification from the Philippine side.
The Palace said HB 3216 will only force China not to recognize the Philippine’s sovereignty and its occupation of the islands that are part of the Spratlys.
Santiago insists that bills seeking to redefine the country’s territorial boundaries be given a lower priority as a "complete, scientific, and scholarly study and analysis of the impact of the archipelagic doctrine on our national territory" is needed before discussing the pending bills.
The senator warned that it would be a "complex problem" if the Philippines declared itself an archipelagic state without studying what would be its consequences. (WV/Sunnex)
