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West Philippine Sea

Coordinates: 13°N 118°E / 13°N 118°E / 13; 118
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Not to be confused with eastern Philippine Sea.

West Philippine Sea
Kanlurang Dagat ng Pilipinas (Filipino)
Map showing the approximate area corresponding to the official extent of the West Philippine Sea. Also included is the international treaty limits (red line as per the 1898 Treaty of Paris) and the Spratly Islands which is often designated as the Kalayaan Island Group in Philippine maps (green line as per Presidential Decree No. 1596 of 1978[1]) .
West Philippine Sea is located in Luzon
West Philippine Sea
West Philippine Sea
West Philippine Sea is located in South China Sea
West Philippine Sea
West Philippine Sea
West Philippine Sea is located in Southeast Asia
West Philippine Sea
West Philippine Sea
West Philippine Sea is located in Asia
West Philippine Sea
West Philippine Sea
Coordinates13°N 118°E / 13°N 118°E / 13; 118
EtymologyAfter the Philippines (name officially adopted by the Philippine government on September 5, 2012 pursuant to Administrative Order No. 29.)
Part ofSouth China Sea (Philippine-claimed EEZ only)
IslandsSpratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal (disputed territories)

West Philippine Sea (Filipino: Kanlurang Dagat ng Pilipinas;[2][3] or Karagatang Kanlurang Pilipinas;[4] abbreviated as WPS) is the official designation by the government of the Philippines to the parts of the South China Sea that are included in the country's exclusive economic zone. The term is also sometimes incorrectly used to refer to the entire South China Sea.

Background

The term "West Philippine Sea" has been in use by the international community since at least 1961, mentioned in geology and oceanography papers. It was, however, used to refer to the western portion of the Philippine Sea, which is East of the Philippine archipelago.[5][6][7]

As early as 2011, during the administration of President Benigno Aquino III, the Philippine national government had begun to refer to the waters to the West of the Philippine archipelago by the same name.[8] The new definition of the name was intended for purposes of the national mapping system[9] and according to Walden Bello, to symbolize disagreement with China's sovereignty claim over the whole South China Sea.[10]

In the House of Representatives, Akbayan representative Walden Bello filed a resolution in June 2011 urging the government to look into the process of changing the name of the South China Sea to "Western Philippine Sea".[11]

According to Bello, the term West Philippine Sea did not carry any specific spatial demarcation or geographical specificity and was meant to reflect that the South China Sea was not China’s sea.[10] The proposal to have a different naming for the sea has received support from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which has been using West Philippine Sea since the mid-2000s[12] That was codified by administrative order in September 2012, and its application clarified as limited to waters within the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which mandated use of that term by departments, subdivisions, agencies and instrumentalities of the Philippine government.[9] In September 2012, the Philippine government announced that it would start using the name to refer to waters west of the Philippines as "West Philippine Sea" in government maps, other forms of communication and documents.[8]

2016 PCA ruling

Main article: Philippines v. China

On July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in favor of the Philippines in a case not involving naming. It clarified that "[T]he Tribunal has not been asked to, and does not purport to, delimit any maritime boundary between the Parties or involving any other State bordering on the South China Sea".[13][14][15] The tribunal also ruled that China has "no historical rights" based on the "nine-dash line" map.[14][15]

There is no exact demarcation of boundaries for the area in the South China Sea which forms the West Philippine Sea.[10] The Administrative order which officially named the area defined it as follows:

The maritime areas on the western side of the Philippine archipelago are hereby named as the West Philippine Sea. These areas include the Luzon Sea as well as the waters around within the adjacent to the Kalayaan Island Group and Bajo de Masinloc, also known as Scarborough Shoal.

— Sec. 1, Administrative Order No. 29 (2012)[9]

In Philippine law, the West Philippine Sea refers only to the portions of the South China Sea which the Philippine government claims to be part of the country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The naming of the area became official through Administrative Order No. 29 issued by then-President Benigno Aquino III on September 5, 2012. The order also cites Presidential Decree No. 1599 which was issued in 1978 during the tenure of then President Ferdinand Marcos which established the Philippine EEZ as well as the Republic Act No. 9522 or the Baselines Law which was enacted into law in 2009 during the administration of then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo which delineated the baselines of the Philippine archipelago.[16]

The administrative order asserts the Philippine claim over its EEZ in the South China Sea which conveys the Philippine government's position that it has sovereign rights under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea over the West Philippine Sea area and "inherent power and right to designate its maritime areas with appropriate nomenclature for purposes of the national mapping system".[16]

Usage

Unofficial NAMRIA map showing features in the West Philippine Sea. Features names are those recognized by Philippine government.

Under the Administrative Order No. 29, the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) is mandated to use the designation West Philippine Sea in maps produced and published by the government agency. Other government agencies are also required to use the term to popularize the use of the name domestically and internationally.[16]

Prior to the issuance of the order, the Philippines' weather bureau, PAGASA, adopted the name in 2011 to refer to waters west of the country while remained using "Philippine Sea" to refer waters east of the archipelago.[17]

The term West Philippine Sea has sometimes been used to refer to the whole of the South China Sea, though this is usage has been denounced as incorrect.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Presidential Decree No. 1596, s. 1978". Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. June 11, 1978. Archived from the original on July 14, 2017. Retrieved April 20, 2024.
  2. ^ "Senate Bill No. 405, 19th Congress" (PDF) (in Filipino). 19th Congress of the Philippines. July 2022. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
  3. ^ "Pnoy, naalala sa tensyon sa China" (in Filipino). Philstar.com. June 25, 2024. Retrieved August 27, 2024. Kaya't naalala ng mga Pilipino kung paano iginiit ni dating pangulo ang mga karapatan ng bansa sa Kanlurang Dagat ng Pilipinas sa paggunita sa anibersaryo ng kanyang kamatayan sa gitna ng kasalukuyang tensyon sa lugar kasunod ng panghihimasok ng China.
  4. ^ "Ang West Philippine Sea: Isang Sipat" [The West Philippine Sea: A Briefer] (PDF) (in Filipino). Department of Foreign Affairs (Philippines). December 2014. p. 2. Retrieved February 18, 2022. Nasa kanlurang bahagi ng Pilipinas ang Karagatang Kanlurang Pilipinas o West Philippine Sea (WPS).
  5. ^ Sato, T. (1961). "A guyot at the north margin of the West Philippine Sea Basin". Japanese Journal of Geology and Geography. 32 (2).
  6. ^ Ludwig, W.J. (May 10, 1973). "Structure of East China Sea-West Philippine Sea Margin off southern Kyushu, Japan". Journal of Geophysical Research. 78 (14): 2526–2536. doi:10.1029/JB078i014p02526.
  7. ^ Correspondent, A (December 21, 1973). "Origin of Marginal Seas". Nature. 246 (5434): 447–448. doi:10.1038/246447a0. {{cite journal}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
  8. ^ a b Agence France-Presse (September 12, 2012). "Philippines renames coast 'West Philippine Sea'". South China Morning Post. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  9. ^ a b c "Administrative Order No. 29 : Naming the West Philippine Sea of the Republic of the Philippines, and for Other Purposes". Official Gazette. Government of the Philippines. September 5, 2012.
  10. ^ a b c Heydarian, Javad. "The West Philippine Sea?". The Diplomat. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  11. ^ FRJ (June 3, 2011). "Gawing Western Philippine Sea: Tawag sa South China Sea, pinapapalitan ng kongresista" [Make it Western Philippine Sea: Congressman urges the name of South China Sea be changed]. GMA News (in Tagalog). Retrieved June 9, 2021.
  12. ^ Evangelista, Katherine (June 8, 2011). "PH military favors calling South China Sea as Western Philippine Sea". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved June 9, 2021.
  13. ^ "The Republic of the Philippines v. The People's Republic of China" (PDF). Permanent Court of Arbitration. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 29, 2019. Retrieved February 14, 2016.
  14. ^ a b "PCA Press Release: The South China Sea Arbitration (The Republic of the Philippines v. The People's Republic of China) | PCA-CPA". pca-cpa.org. Retrieved July 12, 2016.
  15. ^ a b Perlez, Jane (July 12, 2016). "Tribunal Rejects Beijing's Claims in South China Sea". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 12, 2016.
  16. ^ a b c Ubac, Michael Lim (September 13, 2012). "It's official: Aquino signs order on West Philippine Sea". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  17. ^ "South China Sea renamed in the Philippines". www.asiaone.com.
  18. ^ Agcaoili, John Gabriel (May 25, 2021). "Panelo confuses West Philippine Sea with whole South China Sea". ABS-CBN News. Retrieved July 4, 2021. "If you say the West Philippine Sea, the basis should be really Administrative Order [No.] 29, which clearly refers to only part of the South China Sea, which is under Philippine jurisdiction. It has never been synonymous with the South China Sea," Batongbacal said.
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