{"id":23351,"date":"2014-08-23T20:59:45","date_gmt":"2014-08-23T12:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=23351"},"modified":"2014-08-23T23:07:02","modified_gmt":"2014-08-23T15:07:02","slug":"itu-aba-crucial-in-ph-suit-against-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/08\/23\/itu-aba-crucial-in-ph-suit-against-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Itu Aba \u2013 Crucial in PH suit against China"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Itu<\/a>
Itu Aba Island, Wikipedia Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA — Itu Aba, the \u201crock\u201d which is the biggest land feature in the controversial Spratlys archipelago is crucial in the Philippines\u2019 suit against China, according to experts in international maritime law.<\/p>\n

The Filipino experts explained that the description of Itu Aba as a \u201crock\u201d under the definition of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) is a necessity in the country\u2019s case against China.<\/p>\n

The issue of Itu Aba being a rock or not nearly cost newly appointed Supreme Court Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza a seat in the high court.<\/p>\n

Jardeleza wanted to remove a 14-paragraph discussion about Itu Aba from the memorial submitted by the government to the tribunal in The Hague last March.<\/p>\n

The said section referred to Itu Aba as a \u201crock\u201d that has entitlements under the Unclose to a 12-mile territorial sea but not a 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).<\/p>\n

Jardeleza\u2019s claims were countered by international film Reichler and Martin saying that Itu Aba should be described as \u201ca rock with a very limited entitlement.\u201d<\/p>\n

They added that removing the discussion in the memorial will negatively affect the case of Philippines.<\/p>\n

They also raised the arguments to Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and to President Benigno \u201cNoynoy\u201d Aquino III. President Aquino then decided for the discussion to be included.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Rocks\u2019 as defined under Article 121, Paragraph 3 of Unclos cannot have its own exclusive economic zone or continental shelf. \u2018Rocks,\u2019 however, can become the basis for projecting a 12 nautical mile territorial sea and 24 nautical mile contiguous zone around it,\u201d said Peter Payoyo, an expert based in The Hague who was a former law professor at the University of the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Payoyo added, \u00a0\u201cIf Itu Aba is described as \u2018rocks,\u2019 then the State which owns (or has sovereign\/territorial title over) Itu Aba cannot assert EEZ sovereign rights, nor can that State claim surrounding submerged features outside its 12 nautical mile radius as part of Itu Aba\u2019s continental shelf on which it can build structures or installations,\u201d Payoyo explained in a e-mail to the Inquirer.<\/p>\n

Lawyers Reichler and Martin said that including Itu Aba in the memorial will give the Philippines an opportunity \u201cto frame the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also mentioned that the argument of the Philippines might be enough to convince the tribunal that Itu Abais a \u201crock that generates no more than 12 nautical miles, and this does not overlap with the Philippines\u2019 EEZ or continental shelf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Itu Aba spawns an area of about half a square kilometer. It also lies right on the fringe of the 200 nautical mile EEZ of the Philippines. It used to be under the control of Taiwan. Over the years, it has developed an airstrip and soon a $100-million port.<\/p>\n

Itu Aba is surrounded by Gaven Reef, McKeenan Reef, Johnson South Reef and the Kalayaan island group, including the Pag-asa (Thitu) and the Ayungin Shoal, claimed by the Philppines.<\/p>\n

If Itu Aba will be considered as an \u201cisland,\u201d its 200 nautical mile EEZ would reach Palawan province.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA — Itu Aba, the \u201crock\u201d which is the biggest land feature in the controversial Spratlys archipelago is crucial in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":23354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,95],"tags":[7515,7357,3446],"class_list":["post-23351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-ph","tag-itu-aba","tag-spratly","tag-territorial-dispute","mauthors-lei-fontamillas","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}