PH files submission on extended continental shelf in West Philippine Sea

The Philippines officially presented its partial submission on its extended continental shelf in the West Philippine Sea before the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) on Wednesday, July 29. The submission covers an area the country calls the West Palawan Region, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced. In a release, DFA Deputy Assistant Secretary and spokesperson for maritime affairs Rogelio E. Villanueva Jr. said the submission was made under Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Under Article 76, coastal states like the Philippines are entitled to establish the outer limits of its continental shelf, which includes the seabed and subsoil of areas under water beyond 200 nautical miles but not beyond 350 nautical miles from the country’s baselines. The submission is a “demonstration of the Philippines’ steadfast commitment to the United Nations Charter and the 1982 UNCLOS, reflecting the country’s trust on a rules-based order in the marine and maritime domain,” said Villanueva, according to the DFA release. “The presentation further underscored that the submission was part of the country’s responsibility to secure a peaceful South China Sea through the rule of law in order to sustain the livelihoods of Filipinos, foster trade, protect marine biodiversity, and unite coastal and littoral States,” said the DFA. The DFA said the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority’s (NAMRIA) Extended Continental Shelf Technical Working Group spent 15 years working on the submission, which means the work behind this new partial submission took place over three presidential terms. “During the presentation, the Philippines requested the Commission to consider relevant rulings made by tribunals duly constituted under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, such as the 2016 South China Sea Arbitral Award, which have authoritatively determined the maritime entitlements of littoral States in the South China Sea,” added the DFA. Manila has made an extended continental shelf entitlement submission in the past — in April 2009, for a partial submission covering an area that is now called the Philippine (Benham) Rise. The rise is a 13-million-hectare area off the coast of Aurora province that was confirmed to be an extension of the Philippines’ continental shelf in 2012. Unlike the 2009 submission, however, the West Philippine Sea is an area where overlapping claims exist — including China’s sweeping claim of almost all the South China Sea, despite a 2016 Arbitral Award that deemed that claim invalid. Manila’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Enrique Manalo, led the Philippine delegation in its presentation. NAMRIA Administrator Peter N. Tiangco, as well as other top officials from the Department of Justice, Office of the Solicitor General, and academics from the University of the Philippines, were also part of the delegation. – Rappler.com