Senator Francis Tolentino expressed his belief that once the Archipelagic Sea Lanes (ASL) law is enacted, and eventually accepted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), it can strengthen the position of the Philippines in the ongoing territorial disputes and aggression of adversarial countries.

Tolentino presided over the Special Committee on Maritime and Admiralty Zones’ hearing on establishing the country's archipelagic sea lanes on Wednesday, Jan. 24.

During the deliberations on the ASL law, Tolentino pushed for the inclusion of a provision that would highlight the 2016 Arbitral Ruling that favored the Philippines.

The senator believes that the Philippines should claim its win in the 2016 Arbitral Ruling in any forum to strengthen the country’s position on territorial dispute.

“Anything that would strengthen the awards and strengthen our position should be claimed kahit saang forum,” the Senator noted.

Department of Justice Senior State Counsel Fretti Ganchoon expressed the agency’s commitment to undertake Tolentino’s suggestion in forming such a provision.

“We are willing to undertake to study. We can reaffirm the award,” Ganchoon remarked.

Ganchoon was also tasked by Tolentino to submit the answer to the request of the committee during the last hearing to collate the 19 rules of Indonesia and its convergence with Philippine territory and to distinguish them.

Ganchoon apologized for not being able to comply but vowed to submit the department’s reply next week.

“It will really guide the committee in approaching all of the issues concerned considering that Indonesia is the only archipelagic country with the sea lanes, coming from the group of 22 countries, to include the Philippines. So we really want to see that because it will guide this committee, not just for purposes of comparison, but how we should approach our pre-consultation, consultation and imprimatur that would be given to the international maritime organization,” Tolentino explained.

Meanwhile, Sen. Win Gatchalian asked the Department of Foreign (DFA) how the enactment of the law can help the country in assertion of its rights and sovereignty in light of the aforementioned arbitral ruling.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo explained that it will enable the countr to better implement the arbitral award by identifying more clearly the specific areas that would be considered to be within the country's sovereign rights.

"For any incident we would have a specific law through ASL to help us further make a case if there's any kind infraction; this is definitely going against our sovereign rights because of the existence of this law," he said.

"Then if we get the Maritime Zones law, and the ASL law, plust the arbitral award plus UNCLOS, we would have a much stronger legal basis to defend and to actually assert our sovereign rights especially in the EEZ," he added.

Gatchalian also asked the Department of National Defense (DND) how to mitigate the risks to national security should the ASL Bill be enacted into law since it's not all positives in designating ASLs because military vessels from adversarial states, such as submarines, could use those lanes.

DND Usec. Ignacio Madriaga of the DND said the collective position of the National Task Force on the West Philippine Sea is to support only three designated ASLs compared to the original proposal of 11 ASLs and to object having designated ASLs along the so-called "Philippine Heartland."

He said that the Philippine Heartland is the traditional invasion route that is composed of the Surigao Strait and San Bernardino Strait.

"Removing the proposed ASLs through those two strategic passages would enhance our security and designating only three would allow us to monitor all the passages of the foreign vessel," he added.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by MANILA BULLETIN

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