MANILA, Philippines, May 31 ------ The House of Representatives approved a bill designating sea lanes and air routes for foreign ships and aircraft passing by the Philippines.
With a vote of 186-0, lawmakers approved House Bill 10814, or the "Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act" on third reading. A copy of the approved bill was made public and its fact sheet showed that the measure provides the coordinates designating the sea lanes and air routes suitable for the continuous and expeditious passage of foreign ships and aircraft through or over the country's archipelagic waters and the adjacent territorial sea. Likewise, it prescribes the rights and obligations of foreign ships and aircraft exercising the right of archipelagic sea lanes passage.
The proposed law mandates the President to issue rules and regulations relating to the management and security of the ASLs and adjacent archipelagic waters. It penalizes non-compliance with the provisions of the measure, and with existing fisheries, environmental, customs, fiscal, immigration, sanitary and other pertinent laws. The fact sheet said the bill seeks to establish the archipelagic sea lanes (ASLs) in Philippine archipelagic waters to prevent arbitrary international passage.
In March last year, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the country should set "archipelagic sea lanes" within its waters for foreign vessels and aircraft. "This is the compromise we made during the negotiations in the 3rd United Nations Conference on the Law of the Seas from 1973 to 1982 . . . in order for the archipelagos such as the Philippines to be treated as a single unit," DFA Asec. Igor Bailen of the Office of Treaties and Legal Affairs said then at a Senate hearing. "While UNCLOS allows user states to pass through archipelagic waters, it also provides the archipelagic state such as the Philippines right to designate only specific sea lanes where archipelagic sea lanes can be exercised."
Bailen said that due to a lack of sea lanes, other countries are taking advantage of the situation every time their vessels pass through Philippine maritime waters. "The routes normally used for international navigation has no precise definition under UNCLOS, and as such can be subject to varying interpretations by foreign countries in accordance to their own interests," said Bailen. "In fact, this is exactly what China used to justify the passage of its warships over Sibutu passage between North Borneo and Sulu . . . Therefore, not designating ASLs (Archipelagic Sea Lanes) would allow foreign countries exercise archipelagic sea lanes passage in whatever route they consider or insist as routes normally used for international navigation," he noted.
Source: news.abs-cbn.com
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