Philippines formally presents extended continental shelf claims at UN

The Philippines has presented its partial submission on its entitlement to an extended continental shelf (ECS) in the West Philippine Sea before the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) in New York, USA, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said. Pursuant to Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Philippines submitted its claim to define the outer boundaries of its continental shelf, the DFA said. This area includes the seabed and subsoil stretching past the 200-nautical-mile mark, up to a maximum of 350 nautical miles from its baseline. “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,” the DFA said in a statement. “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 (UNCLOS), such as the 2016 South China Sea Arbitral Award, which have authoritatively determined the maritime entitlements of littoral States in the South China Sea,” the department added. The Philippine delegation was led by ambassador and permanent representative to the UN Enrique Manalo. The other members were National Mapping and Resource Information Authority as well as officials from the DFA, Department of Justice, Office of the Solicitor General, and academic experts from the University of the Philippines. This marked the second time the Philippines submitted its presentation on the continental shelf claim. Its initial partial submission regarding the Philippine Rise in April 2009 was validated by the CLCS in 2012, granting the country an extra 135,506 square kilometers of seabed. China claims most of the South China Sea, parts of which are also claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and Indonesia. In 2016, an international arbitral tribunal in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines, invalidating China’s sweeping claims over much of the South China Sea and finding no legal basis for its claim to historic rights within the so-called nine-dash line. China has rejected the ruling and continues to refuse to recognize it. —VAL, GMA News