National territory

Chapter 6                                       

                                            National territory

Article I

“The national territory comprises the Philippine archipelago with the island and waters embraced therein and all other territories which the Philippine has sovereignty or jurisdiction consisting of its terrestrial fluvial and areal domains including its territorial sea the seabed the subsoil the insular shelves and other submarine areas. The waters around between connecting the islands of archipelago regardless of their breadth and dimensions form part of the internal waters of the Philippines.”

Three constitutions

·        1935

·        1973

·        1987

Two kinds of law:

Ø Municipal law –over all laws pertaining to the relationship of the states of the relationship of the states and its citizens.

Ø International law which govern the relationship of states of one another.

Battle of Bud Bagsak in 1913 the Muslims became attracted to the pacification policy of the Americans and began to like the American rule through the department of Mindanao and sulu which created to take care of the affair of the Muslims.

Territory defined:

A.  The Philippine Archipelago with all the Islands and Waters Embraced therein

The term archipelago is derived from the greek word pelagos which means sea.

Archipelago is that part of the sea studded with islands. The sea and the islands are considered as a single geographical unit.

B.  All Other Territories Over th Philippines has Sovereignty or Jurisdiction

This refer to territories already acquired or will be acquired on the future according to international law.

C.  The Terrestrial Fluvial and Aerial Domains

The fluvial domains aside from its external waters are:

1.   The territorial sea which extend 12 nautical miles (19 km) from the shore. It is also called “marginal sea” or “marine belt”. It is the belt of waters which are adjacent or parallel to the coastline of the state outside the internal waters.

2.   The seabed or the seafloor. It is the land holding the sea extending from the shore. It is simply the bottom of the territorial sea.

3.   The subsoil which is the soil layer beneath the surface soil of the territorial sea or the seabed.

4.   The insular shelves or the continental shelves. It is that submerged portion of the continent or offshore extending to a point of steep descent to the ocean floor.

5.   Other submarine areas which refer to those areas under the territorial sea commonly called as reefs basin shoal and the like.

D.  The Inland Water

There are three kinds of waters of the seas.

1.   Internal or inland water (referred to as national water)

2.   Territorial seas: and

3.   High seas

The internal or inland waters are the waters around between and connecting the islands of the archipelago.

The Archipelago Doctrine

Archipelagic Principle or Archipelago Doctrine which posited the unity of the land water and people into a single entity (Tolentino 1990). This was reiterated by the Philippines in the United Nations convention on the law of the sea (UNCLOS) in the 1960 and 1973 sessions.

The Philippine claim on the spratlys

    The Spratlys is the chain of more than 100 islands cays reefs and shoals in South China Sea. There are five countries aside from the Philippines who are actively contesting sovereignty and ownership of these islands. These are China Vietnam Brunei and Malaysia. The Philippines claim only a group of 50 to60 islands islet shoals cays and reefs on the western section of the spratlys which which it calls the Kalayaan Group of Islands (KGI).

The Philippine Claim on Sabah

    The Philippine claim on Sabah has a long historical basis compared to its claim on the spratlys.

    In 1704 North Borneo which is now called Sabah was given as a gift to the Sultan of Sulu by the Sultan of Brunei when the former was able to help the latter on quelling a 

    The government moved to recover Sabah through house resolution No. 42 adopted on April 28 1950 stating that Sabah belongs to the heir of Sultan of Sulu and authorizing the Philippines to conduct negotiations for the restoration of ownership and sovereignty the territory (Ibid. 1989)

reflection: the national territory holds the rights of the nation to its properties and land and waters around the philippines. the philippine are rich and the largest archipelago in the world because of its islands.