The Philippines has filed a claim with the United Nations (UN) to an extended continental shelf (ECS) in the South China Sea, a waterway where it has had increasingly confrontational maritime disputes with China.
The Philippine foreign affairs department said it submitted information to the UN’s Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf on the extent of its undersea shelf in the South China Sea, off western Palawan province, after more than a decade and a half of scientific research.
“Today we secure our future by making a manifestation of our exclusive right to explore and exploit natural resources in our ECS entitlement,” Marshall Louis Alferez, the foreign ministry’s assistant secretary for maritime and ocean affairs, said in a statement on Saturday.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 found China’s sweeping claims have no legal basis, a ruling Beijing rejects.
China’s embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday’s UN filing.
Area potentially rich in oil and gas
Portions of the strategic waterway, through which $3 trillion worth of trade passes annually, are believed to be rich in oil and natural gas deposits, as well as fish stocks.
The submission, cleared by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, follows a comprehensive technical and scientific study of the continental shelf in the West Philippine Sea, the foreign ministry said, referring to a part of the South China Sea within its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.
The Philippines said it was using an entitlement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to establish the outer limits of its continental shelf, comprising the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas up to 350 nautical miles.
The UN in 2012 confirmed Benham Rise, which is off the Philippines’ east coast and not under dispute with China, as part of the Philippines’ extended continental shelf.
In its confrontations with the Philippine government and fishing vessels, China’s coastguard has stepped up the use of water cannon, collision and ramming tactics and, according to Manila, use of a military-grade laser.
An armada of Chinese fishing boats is considered by the Philippines and its allies to be a sea militia.
Reuters/AP