Panatag means more than rocks and reefs

“Scarborough Shoal is outside the territory delineated by the US-Spain Treaty of Paris. So it can’t possibly be part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.”

That is the common, if confused, theme of a salvo of recent e-mails. The senders, likely China propagandists, retort to my articles on China’s bullying in the West Philippine (South China) Sea. One of them, Ben Wrong (cguhl@live.com), calls Filipinos “stupid” for flouting what is “dictated by your colonial masters.” He waves the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, for Filipinos to learn about EEZs.

Ben’s little knowledge is a dangerous thing. It would seem for him that sovereign states should obey colonizers. If so, China must heed the Simla Accord of 1914, under which Great Britain later put Tibet under India. Newly independent Philippines in 1898 was left out of the Paris signing. So was China in Simla.

At any rate, the Philippines abides by the UNCLOS, which grants littoral states a 200-nautical mile EEZ. The EEZ is measured from the outermost base points of main or islands. In case of EEZ overlaps, the states can draw common median limits.

As for Scarborough, China claims ownership by hazy historical right, and improperly calls it Huangyan Island. Philippines’ 200-mile EEZ.

Panatag (Huangyan) is a collection of rocks and reefs, and so cannot be a startoff point for China’s EEZ. (Again, same with Mischief, etc.) China thus cannot push back the Philippine EEZ to a mere 35 miles off Zambales, as the median between Panatag and Luzon.

* * * And this is where the rejoinder comes in to those who sneer that the Philippines is making such a big fuss over some rocks in its EEZ.

Panatag, Recto (Reed) Bank, Escoda (Sabina) Shoal, Hasa-Hasa (Half Moon) Shoal, Quirino ( Jackson) Atoll, Amy Douglas Bank, Rajah Soliman (Boxall) Reef, and Rizal (Commodore) Reef are not mere rocks in the middle of nowhere.

They are within 60 to 80 miles off Luzon and Palawan, well within the Philippines’ 200-mile EEZ. They are rich in resources:

• Recto potentially has tens of millions of barrels of oil and gas. Filipino and European explorers pinpointed a Sampaguita Field there as early as the 1970s.

• The rest, by their nature as atolls, shoals and reefs, host rich marine food supply. China knows this. That’s why it grabbed Mischief Reef, 120 miles off Palawan, on the pretext of building fishermen’s shelters in 1995.

The shoal, as with similar seamarks in the West Philippine Sea, hold fuel and food resources. To surrender them would compromise the security of future generations of Filipinos.