House OKs baselines bill on third reading

MANILA, Philippines -- The House of Representatives passed on third and final reading last night a bill seeking to define the country’s territorial baselines in the area of the disputed Spratly islands.

Lawmakers voted 171-3 with no abstentions to uphold House Bill 3216 of Cebu Rep. Antonio Cuenco, House committee on foreign affairs chairman, beating the May 2009 deadline set by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The Senate had earlier approved its version of the bill authored by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Cuenco’s counterpart in the Senate.

Under HB 3216, the country’s archipelagic baselines would include the Kalayaan Island Group and Scarborough Shoal.

The bill was passed on second reading early last year, but China had objected to the bill, which delayed its passage.

Senators and House members are including the Kalayaan Island Group and Scarborough Shoal with the rest of the main archipelago, treating them as offshore territories or a “regime of islands.”   – Delon Porcalla