‘Drop that grand ambition of a Code of Conduct for navigation in the SCS’

ONLY countries littoral to the South China Sea (SCS) should be allowed to participate, navigate and exercise in the area in the proposed Code of Conduct for navigation.

This should be the basis upon which countries could be made members.

While the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) appears willing to accept as members countries alien or intruder to the region, such cannot be made a criteria.

They are not littoral states to the SCS to rightfully allow them to have a legitimate claim; they being not members of the ASEAN, much that not all ASEAN countries have littoral access to the SCS, and are given access of innocent passage in the SCS.

The members of the ASEAN today are: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

On September 16, 1963, the so-called Federation of Malaysia was formed.

The membership of Sabah and Sarawak located in the island of Borneo made these portions of the federation littoral states to the SCS.

Legally, these two federated countries have pending claims in the SCS, and claims that began in 1963.

Prior to that, they cannot be considered legitimate claimants to any of the islands, they not being littoral states or have direct access to the SCS.

such is allowed by the Constitution to have the bases leased or rented to foreign countries

Prior to the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) on December 10, 1982, all countries littoral to the SCS observed the normal and traditional waterline of 12-mile limit from their outermost baseline.

There was confusion on our part because the Philippines adopted the “archipelagic doctrine” understood as the Tolentino Doctrine.

This is found in the 2nd sentence of Article 1 of the 1987 Constitution.

The Archipelagic Doctrine states that “all waters, around between and connecting different islands belonging to the Philippine Archipelago, irrespective of their width or dimension, are necessary appurtenances of its land territory, forming an integral part of the national or inland waters, subject to the exclusive sovereignty of the Philippines.”

The provision emphasizes the unity of the land and waters by defining an archipelago as group of islands surrounded by waters or a body of waters studded with islands.

To emphasize unity, an imaginary single baseline is drawn around the islands by joining appropriate points of the outermost islands of the archipelago with straight lines and all islands and waters enclosed within the baseline to form part of its territory.

As stated, the approval of UNCLOS expanded the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) to 200-mile from the country’s outermost base.

Generally, a state’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea, extending seaward to a distance of no more than 200 nautical miles, 370 km out from its coastal baseline.

The exception to this rule occurs when EEZ

By Melandrew T. Velasco

I AM rather troubled by reports on continued imports of agricultural products—crops, poultry and meat included—although our country is basically agricultural.

I wish by this time we had addressed the problems confronting the agricultural sector embedded for generations.

I wish we were now a self-reliant and selfsufficient country—at par with or even better than our regional neighbors in terms of food.

I had the great privilege of serving as communications and media consultant at the DA during the stints of then Secretary Leonardo Montemayor and former Secretary Arthur Yap with the then Undersecretary Jesus Emmanuel Paras. I remain optimistic though that we will get there with the right government policies under the leadership of PBBM who has taken on the role of Secretary at the Department of Agriculture, and with the help of the private sector.

While this is noble, I believe it’s about time President Marcos Jr. appointed a permanent DA Secretary. Over the past week, three reports caught my attention.

The Philippine Statistics Authority reported the value of production in agriculture and fisheries at constant 2018 prices in the first quarter of 2023