WATER FORMS Three large water forms bound it: South china sea, on the north and west;

Philippine sea on the east; Celebes sea, on the south. The strategic location of the country in southeast asia has made the country one of the hubs of trades and commerce in the region.

South China Sea

The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around 3,500,000 square kilometres (1,400,000 sq mi). The area's importance largely results from one-third of the world's shipping transiting [2] through its waters, and that it is believed to hold huge oil and gas reserves beneath its seabed. It is located south of mainland China and the island of Taiwan, west of the Philippines, north west of Sabah (Malaysia), Sarawak (Malaysia) and Brunei, north of Indonesia, north east of the Malay peninsula (Malaysia) and Singapore, and east of Vietnam.

The minute South China Sea Islands, collectively an archipelago, number in the hundreds. The sea and its mostly uninhabited islands are subject to competing claims of sovereignty by several countries. These claims are also reflected in the variety of names used for the islands and the sea.

PHILIPPINE SEA The Philippine Sea is a marginal sea east and north of the Philippinesoccupying an estimated surface [1] [2] area of 2 million mi (5 million km) on the western part of the North Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by the Philippine archipelago (Luzon, Samar, Leyte and Mindanao) on the southwest; Palau,Yap, and Ulithi (of the Carolines) on the southeast; the Marianas, includingGuam, Saipan, and Tinian, on the east; the Bonin and Iwo Jima on the northeast; the Japanese islands of Honshu, Shikoku, and Kysh on [3] the north; the Ryukyu Islands on the northwest; and Taiwan in the west. The sea has a complex and diverse undersea relief. The floor is formed into a structural basin by a series of geologic faults and fracture zones. Island arcs, which are actually extended ridges protruding above the ocean surface due toplate tectonic activity in the area, enclose the Philippine Sea to the north, east and south. The Philippine archipelago, Ryukyu Islands, and the Marianas are examples. Another prominent feature of the Philippine Sea is the presence ofdeep sea trenches, among them the Philippine Trench and the Mariana Trench, containing the deepest point on the planet.
[4]

CELEBES SEA
The Celebes Sea (Indonesian: Laut Sulawesi) of the western Pacific Ocean is bordered on the north by the Sulu Archipelago and Sulu Sea and Mindanao Island of the Philippines, on the east by the Sangihe Islands chain, on the south by Sulawesi, and on the west by Kalimantan in Indonesia. It extends 420 miles (675 km) north-south by 520 miles (837 km) east-west and has a total surface area of 110,000 2 square miles (280,000 km ), to a maximum depth of 20,300 feet (6,200 m). The sea opens southwest through the Makassar Strait into the Java Sea. The Celebes Sea is a piece of an ancient ocean basin that formed 42 million years ago in a locale removed from any landmass. By 20,000,000 years ago, earth crust movement had moved the basin close [1] enough to the Indonesianand Philippine volcanoes to receive emitted debris. By 10 million years ago the Celebes Sea was inundated with continental debris, including coal, which was shed from a growing young mountain on Borneo and the basin had docked against Eurasia. The border between the Celebes and the Sulu Sea is at the Sibutu-Basilan Ridge. Strong ocean currents, deep sea trenches andseamounts, combined with active volcanic islands, result in complex oceanographic features.

SULU SEA

The Sulu Sea is a body of water in the southwestern area of the Philippines, separated from the South China Sea in the northwest by Palawan and from the Celebes Sea in the southeast by the Sulu Archipelago. Borneo is found to the southwest and Visayasto the northeast. Sulu Sea contains a number of islands. The Cuyo Islands and Cagayan Sulu are part of the province of Palawan while Mapun and the Turtle Islands are part of the province ofTawi-Tawi. Sulu Sea is also where [1] the Tubbataha Reef National Marine Park, one of theWorld Heritage Sites is located.