THE Senate on Monday approved on third and final reading a Senate resolution concurring in the ratification of the Philippine-Indonesia agreement on maritime boundaries.
Voting 20-0 on PSR 1048, the chamber concurred in ratifying the “Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Philippines and the Government of the Republic of Indonesia Concerning the Delimitation of the Exclusive Economic Zone Boundary.”
The chamber approved PSR 1048 on second reading on May 28.
The Agreement “establishes the boundary line that delimits the overlapping exclusive economic zones of the Philippines and Indonesia,” according to the Resolution.
Both the Philippines and Indonesia are parties to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which entitles them to a 200 nautical-mile EEZ.
The two countries, however, have overlapping EEZ in the Mindanao Sea and Celebes Sea and in the southern section of the Philippine Sea.
Senate Foreign Relations panel chair Loren B. Legarda has said that delimitation of the overlapping EEZs was determined via UNCLOS.
The resolution of Senate concurrence was backed by the Departments of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Environment and Natural Resources, National Defense; as well as the Armed of Forces of the Philippines, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, and the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority. — Charmaine A. Tadalan
