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The national government decides which persons and goods shall enter and which shall not. Failure to control a countrys borders leaves the wealth creating process inside the country open to any disruption from outside trends.
Cited Scenario:
Philippines ownership to Spratly Island
Fact: Spratlys Islands or Kalayaan Island Group is just within the Philippines' proximity and 200 Nautical Miles Exclusive Economic Zone - under the International Laws Sea - UNCLOS. The Philippines as the closest and archipelagic country of the Spratly island with another Five Asian countries claim the Spratly Islands including - China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei. In 1971, the Philippines officially claimed eight islands that it refers to as the Kalayaan, partly on the basis of this exploration, arguing that the islands: 1) were not part of the Spratly Islands; and 2) had not belonged to anybody and were open to being claimed. In 1972, they were designated as part of Palawan Province, Kalayaan municipality. The total land area of these islands is 790,000 sq meters. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. The Philippines control the following islands in the Spratlys: Kota or Loaita Island Lawak or Nansham Island Likas or West York Island Panata or Lamkian Cay Pag-asa or Thitu Island Parola or North East Cay Patag or Flat Island Rizal or Commodore Reef
Chosen Discussion:
How the country Philippines protect its intellectual property rights on the eight (8) officially claimed islands in Spratly?
Action Taken: In various conferences of the United Nations (UN) on the law of the sea, the Philippines proposed that an archipelagic state composed of groups of islands forming a state is a single unit, with the islands and the waters within the baselines as internal waters. Result: The Philippines got the approval in the UN Conventions on the Law of the Sea held in Jamaica last December 10, 1982 and qualified as archipelagic states. Content of the outcome: The archipelago shall be regarded as a single unit, so that the waters around, between, and connecting the islands of the archipelago, irrespective of their breadth and dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the state, subject to its exclusive sovereignty. Page 1 of 4
The archipelagic doctrine is now incorporated in Chapter IV of the said convention. It legalizes the unity of land, water and people into a single entity The Philippines bolstered the archipelagic principle in defining its territory when it included in Article 1 of the 1987 Constitution the following: "The national territory comprises the Philippine Archipelago, with all the islands and waters embraced therein xxx"; and "The waters around, between and connecting the islands of the archipelago, regardless of their dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the Philippines." On the strength of these assertions, the Philippines Archipelago is considered as one integrated unit instead of being divided into more than seven thousand islands. The outermost of its archipelago are connected with straight baselines and all waters inside the baselines are considered as internal waters. This makes the large bodies of waters connecting the islands of the archipelago like Mindanao Sea, Sulo Sea and the Sibuyan Sea part of the Philippines as its internal waters, similar to the rivers and lakes found within the islands themselves. The archipelagic principle however is subject to the following limitations: a) respect for the right of the ship and other states to pass through the territorial as well as archipelagic waters; b) respect to right of innocent passage ; and c) respect for passage through archipelagic sea lanes subject to the promulgation by local authorities of pertinent rules and regulations.
a. b.
Philippines gained control of the 8 islands in Spratly which is important since the region is supposed to contain large deposits of oil, gas, hydrocarbon and mineral resources. The islands are also strategically located in the sea lanes for commerce and transport in the South China Sea which is very close to the Palawan Province of the Philippines with a distant less than 200 nautical miles; a bases that Philippines has a legal ground that those islands are part of the Philippines.
Facilities helicopter pads 1300 m runway 600 m runway 600 m runway helicopter pad none
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Conclusion:
(Excerpt from the work of Christopher C. Joyner The Spratly Islands Dispute in the South China Sea: Problems, Policies, and Prospects for Diplomatic Accommodation) Conflict over the Spratly can be resolved only if policy makers have the political will and genuine determination to do so. Most states in the region confront common problems, among them political succession, economic development, and rising expectations from their people. In this regard, the Spratlys situation should be turned into an issue of regional unity, rather than division, with the creation of a joint development authority for exploiting resources under the seabed. That ambition has been successfully obtained for other contentious multinational sovereignty disputes elsewhere, and it is not beyond the realm of possibility to conceive such a management agency evolving for the South China Sea as well. The critical challenge is for governments in the region to make it happen.
Sources: Websites: http://reynaelena.com/2011/06/15/understanding-the-spratlys-issue/ http://betterphils.blogspot.com/p/spratly.html http://www1.american.edu/ted/SPRATLY.htm http://globalnation.inquirer.net/16517/philippines-vietnam-forge-navalagreement-on-spratlys PDF Files: The Spratly Islands Dispute in the South China Sea: Problems, Policies, and Prospects for Diplomatic Accommodation by Christopher C. Joyner The Philippine Claim to the Spratly Islands by Haydee B. Yorac Article: Border control: an effective tool to protect Intellectual Property Rights in the Philippines by Bernadette Marie B. Tocjayao and Jennifer D. Fajelagutan, Makati City, Philippines Philippines, Vietnam forge naval agreement on Spratlys by Norman Bordadora, Philippine Daily Inquirer. Dated last Thursday, October 27th, 2011
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