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REPUBLIC ACT NO.

9522 (Philippine
Archipelagic Baselines Law)
Cubias, Gladys Marie
HISTORY
• 1888 and 1889: Hamburg Convention

• 1926: 34th conference at Vienna

• 1930: the Hague Conference under the auspices


of· the League of Nations

• 1958/UNCLOS I: representatives of the


Philippines and Indonesia, supported by a
number of jurists, made of record their official
proposal for recognition of an archipelagic State
• 1960 Conference on the Law of the Sea was
called to take up the breadth of the territorial
sea (UNCLOS II)

• 21 December 1968: Committee on the


Peaceful Uses of the Sea-Bed and Ocean Floor
Beyond the Limits of National Jurisdiction. It
outlined such Committee's future work.
• UNCLOS III: The most significant issues
covered were setting limits, navigation,
archipelagic status and transit regimes, (EEZs),
continental shelf jurisdiction, deep seabed
mining, the exploitation regime, protection of
the marine environment, scientific research,
and settlement of disputes.

• The convention set the limit of various areas,


measured from a carefully defined baseline.
BASIC PRINCIPLES OF AN
ARCHIPELAGIC STATE
• intrinsic geographical, economic and political
entity
• waters and airspace are subject to the
sovereignty
• Innocent passage of foreign vessels
RA 3046 (patterned from UNCLOS II)
“WHEREAS, the Constitution of the Philippines
describes the national territory as comprising
all the territory ceded to the United States by
the Treaty of Paris concluded between the
United States and Spain on December 10,
1898, the limits of which are set forth in
Article III of said treaty, xxxx”
Article 47, UNCLOS III
• It provides that:
• length of such baselines shall not exceed 100
nautical miles, except that up to 3 per cent of
the total number of baselines enclosing any
archipelago may exceed that length, up to a
maximum length of 125 nautical miles
DOMESTIC STRUGGLE
• it is not consistent with international law,
specifically UNCLOS, no country recognizes it
RA 3046 INCONSISTENCIES
• The existing 80 baselines delineated under RA
3046 have a total length of 8,174.8974 miles.
• Three (3) of these 80 baselines or 2.4% of the
total number of baselines exceed 100 miles in
length
• The baseline to the southeast of Mindanao in
the Gulf of Moro is of 140.05 miles in length.
This is beyond the 125 miles limit under
UNCLOS
RA 5446
• “Section 2: The definition of the baselines of
the territorial sea of the Philippine Archipelago
as provided in this Act is without prejudice to
the delineation of the baselines of the
territorial sea around the territory of Sabah,
situated in North Borneo, over which the
Republic of the Philippines has acquired
dominion and sovereignty”

RA
Pertinent provision:
9522

“SECTION 2. The baselines in the following areas


over which the Philippines likewise exercises
sovereignty and jurisdiction shall be determined
as “Regime of Islands” under the Republic of the
Philippines consistent with Article 121 of the
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
(UNCLOS):
a) The Kalayaan Island Group as constituted under
Presidential Decree No. 1596; and
b) Bajo de Masinloc, also known as Scarborough
Shoal.”
RA 3046 RA 9522

80 baselines 101 baselines

Inconsistent with Article 47 of UNCLOS III Consistent with UNCLOS III


RA 3046 vs. RA 9522
RA 9522: A LEGAL QUESTION
• Magallona vs. Executive Secretary Ermita
ISSUES:

(1) RA 9522 reduces Philippine maritime territory, and


logically, the reach of the Philippine states sovereign power,
in violation of Article 1 of the 1987 Constitution, embodying
the terms of the Treaty of Paris and ancillary treaties, and

(2) RA 9522 opens the country’s waters landward of the


baselines to maritime passage by all vessels and aircrafts,
undermining Philippine sovereignty and national security,
contravening the country’s nuclear-free policy, and
damaging marine resources, in violation of relevant
constitutional provisions
Q: whether or not RA 9522 is unconstitutional

IT IS CONSITUTIONAL.

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