Carpio: PH exclusive economic zone anchored on UNCLOS, no coordinates needed

Former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on Friday said geographical coordinates are not needed to determine a country’s exclusive economic zone, saying the international law already provides for the EEZ limits.

Carpio was responding to Senator Rodante Marcoleta’s comments that the West Philippine Sea has no coordinates and as such, is not necessarily within the country’s EEZ.

Marcoleta made the comments during a Senate plenary session last February 3 during a debate with Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan over Senate Resolution 256 calling out China officials' unsavory remarks vs. Philippine officials concerning the West Philippine Sea, with the former saying, "I would like to believe that there has not been any specific computation or coordinates of the West Philippine Sea."

“To measure your 200 nautical miles [off territorial sea] EEZ, you just need archipelagic baselines. From these baselines, by satellite GPS, you would know where your 200 nautical miles of EEZ would end. Coordinates are not required under international law. In fact, under the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS), the moment you have a coastline, you are an island with a coast, automatically, it states that you have a continental shelf,” Carpio said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview.

“Hindi kailangan magkaroon ng batas o magkaroon ng coordinates for you to have your continental shelf. 'Yung continental shelf, ‘yun 'yung exclusive economic zone mo. So, every island that is capable of habitation, automatically, by operation of law, has an exclusive economic zone. Hindi kailangan magkaroon ng batas. There is no need to make any proclamation. That is the beauty of international law,” Carpio added.

(You do not need a law or coordinates for you to have a continent shelf. Your continental shelf is your EEZ. You don’t need a law for that.)

Carpio then cited that the Philippines and China, for that matter, are both signatories to the UNCLOS.

“Even China’s nine-dash line theory claiming the entire West Philippine Sea does not contain any coordinates,” Carpio said.

“He (Marcoleta) is wrong in saying that we need coordinates as provided for by law because the law, UNCLOS, does not require it,” Carpio said.

Aside from UNCLOS, Carpio said that the coverage of the Philippine EEZ, which includes the Kalayaan Island Group, is provided under the Philippine Maritime Zones Act passed just in 2025, when Marcoleta was a member of the House of Representatives.

“The Maritime Zones Act defines the West Philippine Sea. The West Philippine Sea is one of our maritime zones. Maritime zones include territorial sea that is 12 nautical miles [off coastline], the EEZ and extended continental shelf. This law states that the West Philippine Sea refers to our maritime zones in the West Philippine Sea, including the maritime zones of our islands,” he said.

“Pag-asa island is beyond our EEZ [before]. Everybody knew that when they passed the law. That is why it was stated in the Philippine Maritime Zones law that the West Philippine Sea refers to our territorial sea from our archipelagic baselines, our EEZ, and our maritime zones in our island territories,  as well as your maritime zones in Scarborough Shoal and Kalayaan Island Group,” Carpio added, responding to Marcoleta's suggestion that the Kalayaan Island Group can be let go to prevent tension with China.

A July 2016 Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling stated that China's expansive claims in the South China Sea dubbed as nine-dash line had "no legal basis."

The same decision also stated that the Ayungin Shoal, the Spratly Islands, Panganiban or Mischief Reef, and Recto or Reed Bank are within the Philippines’ EEZ and that China cannot prevent Filipinos from catching fish in Scarborough Shoal because it is a common fishing ground.

China, however, has never recognized the Hague court ruling to this day.

Carpio also reiterated his call to Filipinos echoing the views of China on the issue regarding West Philippine Sea to register as foreign agents under the Foreign Agents Act. —AOL, GMA Integrated News