Journal Volume 33 no. 2 (2008) - the Integrated Bar of the ...

Merlin M. Magallona
UNCLOS may demand that the constituent areas of land and water formations
within the KIG be divided into categories of islands under paragraph 1 of Article
121 and of rocks under paragraph 2 of that provision, with the possible result in the
reduction of areas of sovereign rights and jurisdiction. Paragraph 2 provides that
“Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall
have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.”
Constituted as a political unit, “as a distinct and separate municipality of the
Province of Palawan,” KIG has a regime of internal waters around, between and
connecting its constituent islands. It would appear as a result that the formula of
“regime of islands” may eliminate the regime of internal waters between, around
and separating the constituent islands of the KIG, and would have adverse effects
on the sovereignty over the affected sea-bed, subsoil as well as the air space.
Overall, on account of the constitutional recognition under the other-territories
clause, territorial sovereignty over the KIG under Presidential Decree No. 1596
should be beyond statutory alteration in order to prevent derogation of the national
territory as defined in Article I of the Constitution. Note that the said Presidential
Decree sets out in precise technical description the boundaries of the KIG, together
with the identification of the furthest points which, if connected by straight lines
would serve or become the baselines. Hence, not only that the changes to be
introduced by the bill would prove to be superfluous, but these would be as well
inimical to territorial sovereignty.
2. Reorganizing the National
Territory: Shift from The Treaty
of Paris to the UNCLOS
A. The Philippines as an Archipelago
2.1. By Article III of the Treaty of Paris, “Spain cedes to the United States the
archipelago known as the Philippine Islands.” 19 The term archipelago used as descriptive
of the Philippines pertains to a historically established entity organized into one
political unit. Sovereignty of the King of Spain was proclaimed over the whole
Archipelago with Manila declared as its capital, 20 and governed as such for more
than three centuries as a unity of land and water. Under a centralized administration
as a Spanish possession, the Philippines then consisted of thirty-three provinces,
from Luzon to Mindanao, inhabited by a population of about 5 million paying tribute
to the Spanish royal treasury. 21 Following the defeat of the Spanish forces in the
19 Emphasis added.
20 John Foreman, The Philippine Islands, 1906, p. 36.
21 See Jean Mallet, The Philippines: History, Geography, Custom, Agriculture, Industry and Commerce of the
Spanish Colonies in Oceania, 1994, trans. By Pura-Santillan-Castrence, Chap. V.
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