D. Maritime Zones (UNCLOS; RA 12064)

Contiguous Zone

It is an area of water which extends up to 24 nautical miles from the baseline (12 nautical miles from the Territorial Sea). Although not part of the territory, the coastal State may exercise the control necessary to prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration, or sanitary laws within its territory or territorial sea, and to punish infringements committed there.

Exclusive Economic Zone

This refers to the body of water extending up to 200 nautical miles beyond the baseline, within which the state may exercise sovereign rights to explore, exploit, conserve, and manage the natural resources.

Extended Continental Shelf

A coastal State may establish a continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured, where the continental margin extends beyond that distance. It must establish the outer limits by determining the foot of the continental slope and complying with Article 76(4)–(7) of UNCLOS.

Under Article I of the 1987 Constitution, national territory comprises the Philippine archipelago, with all the islands and waters embraced therein, and all other territories over which the Philippines has sovereignty or jurisdiction, including their terrestrial, fluvial, and aerial domains. It also comprises the territorial sea, the seabed, the subsoil, the insular shelves, and other submarine areas. Maritime areas in which the Philippines exercises jurisdiction, such as its exclusive economic zone, are not thereby Philippine territory.

Maritime Zones

Regime of Islands

Under Article 121 of the UNCLOS III, any naturally formed area of land surrounded by water, which is above water at high tides, qualifies under the category of “regime of islands” whose islands generate their own applicable maritime zones (e.g., Kalayaan Islands and Scarborough Shoal).

• Each Kalayaan feature must be assessed individually under Article 121 of the UNCLOS III. A high-tide feature may generate a Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone, but under the South China Sea Arbitration (Philippines v. China), Award of 12 July 2016, no Spratly high-tide feature is capable of generating an Exclusive Economic Zone or Continental Shelf.
• BUT Scarborough Shoal ONLY has a Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone.
• There can be a Continental Shelf without an EEZ, but not an EEZ without a Continental Shelf.