Ah, is this "Gran Filipinas" ?
The islands are just appetizer , Sabah is then main course, I suppose ?
Here's the territory they claim against Malaysia, based on their "historical rights." of the Sulu Sultanate. But they can deny us our historical rights to claim islands/reefs in SCS, hahahahaha, btw, do you know they also claim part of Indonesia?
--------
Top 3 legal bases of claim of the Philippines to rely on UNCLOS to resolve the Spratlys Disputes
The Philippines President Aquino ruled out bilateral talks with China over the disputed Spratly Islands, insisting there is no other forum to settle the issue but the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
“I think that (UN body) is the only recourse left open to us. You don’t actually go to China to ask them to define what the Philippine rights are as far as the West Philippine Sea is concerned,” Aquino said, referring to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea.
The Philippines, in its effort to assert its claims over some of the islands, refers to the South China Sea as the West Philippines Sea.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto del Rosario, during his recent visit to Beijing, told his counterpart that the West Philippines Sea issue is best left to the decision of the UN tribunal, but the Chinese government rejected the idea.
“China always maintains that the South China Sea dispute should be resolved... through direct negotiations between directly concerned countries,” foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters in Beijing.
Aquino, who is scheduled for a state visit to Beijing either late August or early September, said, “We want to establish first precisely who is in the right in terms of the definition of the rights imbued under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.”
“So where do you go? You have to go to the body where everybody is a signatory practically to, and that is the UN, and specifically the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea,” Aquino said, referring to the international judicial body established by UNCLOS to handle maritime disputes between member states.
The President added that he would raise this issue when he visits China this year.
Hong said the Spratlys row should also be dealt with according to “recognized international laws.”
Sun Yi, deputy chief of Political Section and spokesman of the Chinese embassy in Manila, said Beijing’s response to the suggestion to elevate the dispute was already made clear to Del Rosario during his visit to China.
Sun said China maintains the issue should be resolved through a bilateral approach.
Sun emphasized, “China’s position is clear on the issue and the Philippine side knows it well, too.”
The Philippines said Wednesday that China’s rejection of Manila’s suggestion that both countries elevate their dispute to the UN is an indication that Beijing may not be able to validate its territorial claims.
China and the Philippines are both claiming, either in whole or in part, the Spratly Islands, along with Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Brunei.
Top 3 Philippines bases of claim in the Spratlys
1.200 Nautical Mile Exclusive Economic Zone (UNCLOS)
2.The Spratlys Archipelago is very close to the Philippines in less than 200 Nautical miles compare to Vietnam and China
3.The historical rights as the ancestral domain of the Sultanate of Sulu datebacks from the Mahjapahit and Shrivijaya empires, which extended from Sabah (North Borneo), the Sulu archipelago, Palawan, parts of Mindanao, the islands now known as the Spratlys, Palawan, and up to the Visayas and Manila.
Del Rosario pointed out the Philippines’ claims over parts of the West Philippine Sea, including the Spratlys, were “based on international law, specifically UNCLOS.” Even though the Philippines could also use the historical rights like based on the ancestral domain of Sultanate of Sulu date backs from the Mahjapahit and Shrivijaya empires, which extended from Sabah (North Borneo), the Sulu archipelago, Palawan, parts of Mindanao, the islands now known as the Spratlys, Palawan, and up to the Visayas and Manila but the Philippines did not use such claim as it is not recognized by the UNCLOS.
Chinese officials, however, said their claims were based on “historic rights.”
The Philippines and Vietnam have in recent months accused China of taking increasingly aggressive actions in staking its claims in the disputed waters, including an incident where the Chinese allegedly fired on Filipino fishermen.
In April, the Philippine government lodged a formal protest before the UN over China’s claims.
Over the past year, China has seen a flare-up in territorial spats with the Philippines and Vietnam, as well as Japan and seen its relations strained with South Korea – all of which have turned to Washington for support.
Vietnam and China last month both announced their navies held such maneuvers individually in the South China Sea after relations hit a low point when Hanoi twice accused Beijing of hindering oil exploration activities within Vietnam’s economic exclusive zone.
China fired back that Vietnamese boats had endangered Chinese fishermen in a different area near the contested resource-rich Spratlys.
The Philippines has also recently sparred with China, alleging similar interference with its energy exploration efforts in the region.
The US last month conducted similar joint naval exercises that included live-fire drills with the Philippine Navy.
Tempers appeared to be cooling after Chinese and Vietnamese officials met last month and announced they would work to negotiate a peaceful resolution.
Despite China’s irritation following weeks of fiery exchanges between the communist neighbors over disputed areas of the South China Sea, three US Navy ships went to Vietnam for joint training.
China has criticized the port call as inappropriate, saying it should have been rescheduled due to the ongoing squabble.
The US visit, however, did send a message that the US Navy remains a formidable maritime force in the region and is determined to build stronger military ties with smaller Southeast Asian countries.
“We’ve had a presence in the Western Pacific and the South China Sea for 50 to 60 years, even going back before World War II,” US Rear Adm. Tom Carney, who is leading the naval exchange, told reporters.
“We will maintain a presence in the Western Pacific and the South China Sea as we have for decades, and we have no intention of departing from that kind of activity,” he said.
US and Vietnamese officials stressed that the seven-day ship visit and naval training are part of routine exchanges planned long before tensions began flaring between China and Vietnam in late May.
Washington has said that the South China Sea, home to major shipping lanes, is in its national interest. China, which has an expanding maritime influence, has designated the area as a core interest – essentially something it could go to war over. Worried smaller neighboring countries like the Philippines have looked to the US to maintain a strong presence in the region.
“The US has made its point and will continue to do so if pressed, but does not appear to be looking for a fight with Beijing on this issue,” said Ralph Cossa, president of Pacific Forum CSIS, a Hawaii-based think tank.
“It is not likely to heed or back down as a result of Chinese ‘warnings,’ however, which will likely make Washington feel more compelled to respond.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Miangas: Flashpoint island between RP and Indonesia
by
Edwin Espejo | 2nd September 2010 |
@edwinespejo
The Philippines’ strategic and unique archipelagic location in Southeast Asia may have spared the country border wars that faced many of its neighbors in the region but it also gave this former Spanish and, later, American colony plenty of tense diplomatic rows over her territorial claims with the rest of its neighboring countries in Asia.
On the western side lies the vast chain of islands which China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan are claiming as part of their territories.
The Philippines is claiming ownership over the Kalayaan group of islands and several atolls, known also as the Spratly group of islands, west of Palawan.
Down south, the Philippines has not yet abandoned its claim over Sabah which is now part of Malaysia.
Historical records have pointed that Sabah was once part of the territory of the Sultanate Sulu leased to the British Empire which in turn ceded it to Malaysia after granting independence to the later.
The Philippines has another little known claim over a tiny island, 3.17 square kilometers to be exact, in the south with a population of 750 residents.
The island, which is just 77 kilometers away from the farthest point in Davao Oriental, is called Miangas Island and is also know in the international maps as Palmas Island.
When the Philippine drew its tourism map in 2009, Miangas was included in its claim.
The new Philippine tourism map immediately drew reaction from the Indonesian government.
Indonesian Marine and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi said Miangas Island in North Sulawesi belongs to Indonesia and had already been registered with the United Nations as one of the country’s outermost islands.
Early Philippine maps drawn by the Spanish colonizers are said to include the disputed island and was also included in the Philippine colony that Spain sold (ceded) to the United States for US$20,000,000 under the Treaty of Paris.
The Netherlands, former colonizer of Indonesia, however, also claimed Miangas as part of its then territory in Southeast Asia.
In 1925, both the US and the Netherlands submitted the case for arbitration in which The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favor of the Dutch government.
Indonesian Consul General in Davao Lalu Malik Patarwana warned that “if Miangas and Marore islands are annexed by the Philippines it will pose a threat to the integrity of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.”
Marore Island, from where most of the Indonesian nationals now assimilated into different villages in Sarangani as well as Davao del Sur, is an even smaller island and closer to Mindanao than Miangas.
In 2008, Mindanao Economic Development Council chair Virgilio Leyretana cautioned local journalists in General Santos City from tackling the issue as it has far-ranging economic and security implications for Mindanao and the country as well.
In 2007, Indonesian journalist Andreas Harsono even listed the Miangas Island as the one Mindanao area he had gone to during a workshop of Southeast Asian journalists held in Davao’s Eden Nature Park (
http://asiancorrespondent.com/edwin-espejo/archives/7).
Harsono said the Indonesian government was then planning to build an airstrip in Miangas Island.
This was confirmed North Sulawesi governor S. M. Sarundajang during my brief visit in November 2008.
That airstrip is now in existence and the Indonesian government has already established a shipping route to the island.
The Indonesian and Philippine governments have established a joint border patrol base in Miangas, with the Philippines stationing a contingent of Philippine Marines and coast guard authorities.
In 2008, when then Philippine Senator Benigno Aquino III was commencement speaker of the Mindanao State University, this author brought to his attention the plans of the Indonesian government to build an airstrip on Miangas Island as possible diplomatic flashpoint between the country and Indonesia.
Aquino, now president of the Philippines, was then unaware of the Indonesian plan and was more concerned over the Spratly Islands.
Miangas, along with Marore Island, has strategic economic value to the Philippines as it is located inside the 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the country.
At 77 kilometers away from Mati, Davao Oriental, it is closer to the Philippines than Indonesia, while the nearest island from Miangas is 232 kilometers (from the Nanusa Island of North Sulawesi).
Trade and commerce in Miangas is also dependent on Mindanao with residents in the island having more affinity with its Mindanao neighbors. In July 2005, people in the island flew the Philippine flag to protest “the behavior of local police” and the little attention they were reportedly getting from the Indonesian government (
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-134350513.html).
Miangas is also in the middle of the migratory path of tuna, a vital economic activity in Southern Mindanao.
It is along this migratory path that hundreds of Filipino fishermen were apprehended for “encroaching and illegally fishing in Indonesian waters.”
This overlapping EEZ has been a serious concern among Filipino tuna producers over the past decade.
The Miangas Island row could as well become a diplomatic flashpoint between Indonesia and the Philippines in the future.
-------
We are living in such interesting time. LOL
