MANILA, Jun 16 — The Philippines filed a claim with the United Nations (UN) yesterday to an extended continental shelf (ECS) in the South China Sea, a waterway where it has had increasingly confrontational maritime disputes with China.
“Today we secure our future by making a manifestation of our exclusive right to explore and exploit natural resources in our ECS entitlement,” said its Foreign Ministry’s assistant secretary for maritime and ocean affairs Marshall Louis Alferez in a statement.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Portions of the strategic waterway, where US$3 trillion (RM14.1 trillion) worth of trade passes annually, are believed to be rich in oil and natural gas deposits, as well as fish stocks.
In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration found China’s sweeping claims have no legal basis, a ruling Beijing rejected.
China’s embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment on yesterday’s UN filing.
In its confrontations with the Philippine government and fishing vessels, China’s Coast Guard has stepped up the use of water cannons, collision and ramming tactics and, according to Manila, the use of a military-grade laser.
An armada of Chinese fishing boats is considered by the Philippines and its allies to be a sea militia.
The Philippines sought to register its entitlement to an extended continental shelf in the West Palawan Region facing the South China Sea.
The submission, cleared by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, follows a comprehensive technical and scientific study of the continental shelf in the West Philippine Sea, the foreign ministry said.
The latter refers to a part of the South China Sea within its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.
The Philippines said it was using an entitlement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to establish the outer limits of its continental shelf, comprising the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas up to 350 nautical miles.
The UN confirmed Benham Rise, which is off the Philippines’ east coast and not under dispute with China, as part of the Philippines’ extended continental shelf in 2012.
— Reuters
