TWG formed to consolidate bills for designating Archipelagic Sea Lanes

The Senate Special Committee on Maritime and Admiralty Zones has formed a technical working group that will fine-tune the consolidated bills designating archipelagic sea lanes in the Philippines.

Senator Francis Tolentino, the panel chairperson, said the TWG will be composed of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Justice, the National Security Council, the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority, and the Philippine Coast Guard.

“It’s about time to move forward especially with the current geopolitical climate— to form a TWG that would consolidate all the six measures including the House Bill calling for the adoption of the ASL,” he added.

In a recent deliberation of ASL bills, Philippine Ambassador to the United Kingdom Teodoro Locsin also confirmed the need to legislate the designation of ASL in the country.

“We are [one of] the only two serious archipelagos on the planet. As sprawling archipelagos, we are most vulnerable in this particular aspect; our major islands are the sizes of many countries; and the waterways between them offer wide approaches. We can be taken piecemeal,” Locsin, who also sits as the Philippine Permanent Representative to the International Maritime Organization, said.

Locsin said that “it will take some time” for the IMO to adopt the Philippine proposal for ASLs.

Among the ASL measures—subject to refinement by the TWG proposes three ASLs include the Philippine Sea Balintang Channel West Philippine Sea; Celebes Sea Sibutu Passage-Sulu Sea Cuyo East Pass Mindoro Strait WPS; and Celebes-Sea Basilan Strait Sulu Sea- Nasubata Channel Balabac Strait.

Tolentino said the Senate panel expects to submit the final deliberated ASL measure to be submitted in the plenary before the Holy Week in March.