IBP backs PH gov’t in defending sovereign rights in West Philippine Sea

 FLAG OF RESISTANCE A fisherman waves the Philippine flag near a “payao,” or artificial reef close to Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in the West Philippines Sea to display resistance to Chinese incursions and to show other foreign vessels passing through the area that these waters are part of the country’s exclusive economic zone. —PHOTO FROM BIGKIS

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino fisherfolk have the right to conduct their livelihood activities within the country’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and the national government “is duty-bound to protect them inside this zone,” according to the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP).

In a statement on Sunday, the official organization of Philippine lawyers expressed its solidarity with the Filipino people and the Philippine government in defending the country’s sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) amid increasing tensions in the area.

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“The Integrated Bar of the Philippines stands with the Filipino fishermen who are only exercising their right to a livelihood inside our own EEZ. [It] also supports the legitimate stand of the Philippine government in asserting our country’s lawful and sovereign rights over the Philippine EEZ in the WPS,” the organization said.

“Therefore, Filipino fishermen have the legal right to go fishing within the 200 miles Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone, while the Philippine government is duty-bound to provide protection to our fishermen inside this zone,” it added.

According to IBP, the Treaty of Paris of 1898 clearly stated the country’s territorial boundaries, adding that the treaty’s Article III further said that Spain “ceded to the United States all rights of sovereignty over the Philippines, including the waters surrounding the islands.”

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“When the Philippines gained independence, all these islands covered by the Treaty of Paris and Treaty of Washington that form part of the Philippine archipelago became part of [its] territory,” the organization said.

After this, IBP said that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) granted the country sovereign rights over its 200-mile EEZ in the West Philippine Sea. Both the Philippines and China are signatories under UNCLOS.

It further pointed out that the 2016 arbitral ruling upheld the Philippines’ rights over the West Philippine Sea and invalidated China’s infamous nine-dash line then.

Covered within the WPS, which is inside the 200-mile EEZ, are the Scarborough Shoal (Bajo de Masinloc), 120 miles from Zambales, and Ayungin Shoal (2nd Thomas Shoal), 196 miles to Palawan and where BRP Sierra Madre is deliberately grounded.

“In this regard, the 1987 Philippine Constitution mandates the protection of the rights of subsistence fishermen, especially those from local communities, to preferential use of communal marine and fishing resources, both inland and offshore,” IBP said, citing the constitution’s Article XIII, Section 7.