MANILA – The Philippines, through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), has officially asked the United Nations (UN) to register its extended continental shelf (ECS) in the Western Palawan region in the West Philippine Sea.
According to DFA, the submission of information at the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) was made through the Philippine Mission to the UN in New York on June 14.
DFA Assistant Secretary for Maritime and Ocean Affairs Marshall Louis Alferez said this submission is a declaration not only of the Philippines’ maritime entitlements under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) but also of Manila’s commitment to the responsible application of its processes.
He added that the move would also help secure the Philippines’ sovereign rights and maritime jurisdictions in the West Philippine Sea, noting that the 2016 Arbitral Ruling confirmed the country’s maritime entitlements and rejected those that exceeded geographic and substantive limits under UNCLOS.
“Incidents in the waters tend to overshadow the importance of what lies beneath,” Alferez said. “The seabed and the subsoil extending from our archipelago up to the maximum extent allowed by UNCLOS hold significant potential resources that will benefit our nation and our people for generations to come. Today, we secure our future by making a manifestation of our exclusive right to explore and exploit natural resources in our ECS entitlement.”
The DFA official, however, clarified that the submission does not prejudice discussions with relevant coastal States that may have legitimate ECS claims measured from their respective lawful baselines under UNCLOS.
“We consider our submission as a step in discussing delimitation matters and other forms of cooperation moving forward. What is important is the Philippines puts on record the maximum extent of our entitlement,” he said.
This is the second time the Philippines has registered an ECS entitlement. In 2012, the CLCS validated its partial submission on the Philippine Rise, resulting in an additional 135,506 square kilometers of seabed area for the country./PN
