It’s ‘official’: Marcos mandates use of PH names for West Philippine Sea features

One day after announcing a “reset” of ties with China despite maritime tensions that don’t show signs of abating in the South China Sea, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. mandated national government agencies to use Philippine names in referring to some 131 features of the Kalayaan Island Group in the West Philippine Sea. 

Executive Order No. 111, signed on March 26 but made public only on March 31, makes official the Philippine names of the features, including those not controlled by the Philippines.

They are: 

All features are under the municipality of Kalayaan in Palawan province.

Does this matter?

Yes and no. The EO’s scope is limited, after all, since it only covers the executive branch.

Through EO 111, Marcos officially instructed the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) to produce and publish updated charts and maps using the Philippine names of the features, which should also show the Philippine maritime zones as indicated in the Philippine Maritime Zones Act.

Since only the executive branch is covered by order, Marcos can only direct “all national government agencies instrumentalities, including government-owned or -controlled corporations and government financial institutions” to use the Philippine names of these features. The legislative and judiciary, of course, can choose to follow the designated Philippine names as they wish.

The EO also orders government agencies related to education — Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, as well as state universities and colleges — to make sure updated maps and charts from NAMRIA are used in lessons across the country.

Beyond that, the international names of these features are likely to still prevail in usage. After all, the late Benigno Aquino III’s Administrative Order No. 29, which named maritime areas west of the Philippines the West Philippine Sea, didn’t result in other countries calling that part of the South China Sea by that name.

Even the Philippines’ closest partners, including treaty-ally the United States, typically use the term South China Sea when referring to areas that are within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

But it could serve a different purpose internally.

“According to [National Maritime Council], it is imperative to adopt a standard set of Philippine names for the maritime features in the KIG for the efficient administration and governance of the area, and the exercise of the country’s sovereignty in the WPS,” reads the EO.

Calling these features by their Philippine names, derived from either Filipino terms or after personalities in Philippine history, could be useful in strengthening an internal narrative as the country tries to assert both its sovereign rights and sovereignty claims in those waters and features.

After all, it’s difficult to claim and fight for something that isn’t named.

Of the 131, the Philippines occupies only nine features — Parola Island, Likas Island, Pag-asa Island, Panata Island, Kota Island, Patag Island, Lawak Island, Rizal Reef, and Ayungin Shoal.

China, which claims most of the South China Sea, occupies 8 of the 131 – most notably Panganiban (Mischief) Reef, which it first claimed in 1995 was supposed to be only a shelter for fisherfolk. Today, Mischief Reef is a military base located very close to the Philippine mainland. Beijing occupies another feature in the South China Sea close to the Philippines — Scarborough Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc, a feature that’s not part of the Kalayaan Island Group.

It’s Vietnam that occupies the most features in the South China Sea, although maritime tensions between Hanoi and Manila over claims and entitlements are practically non-existent. Malaysia occupies three of the 131 features listed under the new EO, while Taiwan occupies Itu Aba.

In the West Philippine Sea, the Philippines has both sovereign rights and claims to sovereignty.

Its sovereign rights in its exclusive economic zone — or the exclusive right to explore, exploit, and protect maritime resources — were affirmed in the 2016 Arbitral Award, although Beijing refuses to recognize it. Sovereign rights does not mean that the waters are the Philippines’, but it should mean that it has the exclusive right to exploit, for instance, both food and energy resources in that area.

Sovereignty is another issue altogether, and one that could not be decided on by the Arbitral Tribunal, since UNCLOS does not deal with territorial disputes. High-tide elevations — which include Pag-asa Island, a feature beyond the Philippines’ EEZ — touch on sovereignty, as these features generate their own 12-nautical-mile territorial sea.

But back to the official and mandated Philippine names — will this mean an easier life for Filipinos, whether uniformed or fisherfolk, out at sea? Not really.

Exerting entitlements and claims aren’t just enforced by formalizing names or even winning awards. This is when law enforcement, diplomacy, deterrence, and, if need be, a show of force, come in. – Rappler.com