Senator Robin Padilla said the government needs to develop Pag-asa Island in the West Philippine Sea so residents would be encouraged to stay on the island despite continued Chinese incursions in the surrounding waters.
“We need to develop Pag-asa Island so the civilians will stay there,” Padilla said in Filipino during his visit to the island on Friday. Instead of decreasing, the population there should be increasing, he added.
Padilla said he hoped the island would become a fishing hub.
Fishers in Pag-asa Island were reportedly anxious about sailing farther out to sea as Chinese vessels could block their boats.
They said there was abundant fish around three sand bars near Pag-asa Island.
“Pag-asa is ours,” Padilla later said on Facebook. “I believe Pag-asa Island will play a big role in the Philippines’ history. This is ours. We should not allow others to take it.”
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, meanwhile, has filed a bill that seeks to establish the country’s archipelagic sea lanes.
The move was triggered by the latest incidents of Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea, including the firing of water cannons at Filipino boats seeking to resupply the BRP Sierra Madre on Ayungin Shoal, which is within the country’s exclusive economic zone.
“It is critical and imperative that we pass legislation that would designate the country’s archipelagic sea lanes to protect the country’s national security, and economic and environmental interests, particularly in the West Philippine Sea,” Gatchalian said.
The senator filed Senate Bill 2395 known as the Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act.
“We need to ensure the protection of the security and sovereignty of the country, including the welfare of our fishermen sailing off the West Philippine Sea,” he added.
He noted that existing laws already aligned the country’s archipelagic baseline system with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to which the Philippines is a signatory.
Aside from the establishment of archipelagic sea lanes in Philippine archipelagic waters, the measure also seeks to protect the country’s ecological integrity by prohibiting fishing, marine bioprospecting, exploitation of marine resources, unauthorized research and survey statistics, and dumping of wastes and other noxious substances.
If enacted into law, the proposed measure will prohibit foreign ships or aircraft from conducting unauthorized research and survey activities as well as fishing, marine bioprospecting, loading, and unloading of persons, goods, or currency.
Gatchalian emphasized that the proposed measure supports UNCLOS, which recognizes the sovereignty of the archipelagic states over their archipelagic waters, the air space above them, the seabed and subsoil below them, and the resources contained therein. UNCLOS also affords all ships and aircraft archipelagic sea lanes. which may be designated by the archipelagic state.
The Senate recently adopted a resolution urging the Department of Foreign Affairs to bring to international attention China’s harassment of Filipino fishermen in the Philippine exclusive economic zone.
The 2016 arbitral ruling invalidated China’s claims to historic rights and resources within its nine-dash line. It also confirmed China’s violation of the Philippines’ sovereign rights over the disputed area as well as its marine environmental protection obligations under the UNCLOS.