ERMITA'S CHAIRMANSHIP OF TECHNICAL GROUP
ON BASELINES BILL QUESTIONED

Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today asked the Senate committee on foreign relations to reconsider the designation of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita as chairman of the technical working group of Congress that will consolidate the various bills delineating the country's archipelagic baselines filed with Congress.

Pimentel said that since the consolidation of bills into one substitute measure is essentially a legislative function, it is inappropriate for an official from the executive branch like Secretary Ermita to head the TWG concerned.

He supported the view of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV that Ermita's chairmanship of the TWG undermines the independence of Congress and therefore he should be replaced to conform with the basic rule that the research, study and drafting of bills are undertaken under the jurisdiction and control of the Senate committee concerned.

"This is the basic question: Why should an executive official be allowed to handle the running of a technical working group of the committee that tackles the archipelagic baselines of the country?" the minority leader said.

Pimentel asked what factors were considered in choosing Ermita as head of the TWG aside from the fact that he is the chairman of the Commission on Maritime and Ocean Affairs under the Office of the President.

The TWG was formed to resolve the conflicting positions taken by Malacañang and some senators and congressmen in the treatment of the Kalayaan Islands and Scarborough Shoal, which are the subject of territorial dispute between the Philippines and China. The Kalayaan Islands are part of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea which are also being claimed by Vietnam, Taiwan and Brunei.

The Palace insists on treating the Kalayaan Islands and Scarborough Shoal as a "regime of islands" that should not fall within the archipelagic baselines that will enclose all islands that form part of Philippine territory. This is in contrast to the stand taken by Pimentel, Trillanes and a group of congressmen led by Cebu Rep. Antonio Cuenco that Kalayaan Islands and Scarborough Shoal should fall within the baselines.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, chairman of the Senate committee on foreign relations, had originally proposed the creation of a Congressional Commission on National Territory that will conduct authoritative research and study on the scope of the territory of the Philippines in accordance with the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea.

But the creation of the congressional commission was opposed by Pimentel on the ground that it would consume a lot of time and delay the passage of the Archipelagic Baselines Bill. Subsequently, Santiago decided to drop her proposal and to revert to the normal practice of a congressional committee holding public hearings and getting the views of experts and officials of state agencies concerned on the bills concerned.