Spratly Islands Claims

The Philippines, along with Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei, is one of the countries who claim the Spratly Islands. Currently the Philippines is occupying nine features including seven islands, three reefs. There are also features that lie in very close proximity to Philippine-occupied features and that can be seen within the horizon, declared as virtually occupied territory.

The Philippine claim over the Spratly Islands began in May 1956, when Admiral Tomas Cloma found the islands while he was adventuring in the South China Sea. He made an English document, which called Notice to the Whole World, detailing all features of the new state that he claimed. His claim comprises about fifty features of the Spratly Islands. In September 1956, after Taiwan occupied the largest island, Ligao Island, Tomas Cloma decided to cede and sell all the territories of his state to the Philippines for just one peso, which was equivalent to US$0.50 at that time.

The Philippines started to send troops to the Spratly chain in 1968. It prioritized large islands such as Pagasa Island, Likas Island, Parola Island, Kota Island, Lawak Island, and Pugad Island. Two small islands, Patag Island and Panata Island, were also occupied. To further the claim of the Philippines on the island group, the late President Ferdinand Marcos, on June 11, 1978, formally annexed the Kalayaan Islands to Palawan through the declaration of Presidential Decree No.1596. Several years later, Vietnam started occupying many reefs in the area. As of 2008, Vietnam has about 20 non-island occupied features. Some of these are very close to Philippine-occupied islands. Due to this pressure of losing fishing area in South China Sea, the Philippines decided to occupy at least two more reefs.

By the end of the 1970's, the Philippines had occupied a total of eight islands and two reefs. These features, excluding Southwest Cay, are still occupied by the Philippines today. While other countries occupied most of the features they control now during that period, the Philippines has maintained not to occupy any features further. It is attributed to the Philippines' initiation for the cooperative development of the area. The Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia, along with other ASEAN countries who can serve as investors, were already drawing a plan on a wide exploitation of the Spratly chain in the early 1980's when suddenly China became interested in the area. China began occupying features by mid-1980's causing the ASEAN plan to halt.

China occupied only eight features. However, these features were strategic points in the area, making China able to assert its exploitation rights for the whole area. In contrast, the Philippines and Malaysia are limited to particular regions in the area, making these two countries incapable of contesting exploitation rights in other regions. In his 1999 essay, Professor Alex Magno of University of the Philippines pointed out that China is the main aggressor in the Spratly dispute and called on ASEAN to be watchful of China's actions in the South China Sea. Even non-Spratly claiming ASEAN nations, are more supportive to the Vietnamese, Philippine, Malaysian and Bruneian claims than the Chinese claim. However, China today is beginning to engage itself in joint efforts to exploit the area. In particular, China, the Philippines, and Vietnam are already working on their second phase of drawing a joint exploitation plan.

In November 2002 the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea was signed in an effort to ease tensions between the claimants. It stipulates all claimants to commit to the status quo and not to build any new structure in the disputed regions of Spratly.

The Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) is a tripartite agreement between the Philippines, China and Vietnam that was signed in September 2004 and took effect in July 2005. It's an agreement to conduct seismic exploration in an area spanning 142,886 square kilometers west of Palawan, all of which are within Philippine territories. A Chinese vessel conducted the survey, Vietnam processed the data gathered and this was interpreted by PNOC-EC in Manila. It was supposedly to end January 2008.
A controversy broke out when Barry Wain, a researcher in the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, wrote an article in the Far Eastern Economic Review saying that "it was largely a sellout on the part of the Philippines".

The Philippine Senate believes that President Arroyo can be impeached if she was proven to have forsaken the national interests of the Philippines by signing into the JMSU. Legislators also say that the agreement is a betrayal to the 10-member ASEAN. This is because the Philippines had made an agreement with China on its own without even consulting other ASEAN states. Vietnam is said to have initially resisted joining the agreement but was eventually "forced" to join to protect its own interest after Philippines gave China a 100% OK.
As action to the problems regarding territorial claims, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has signed into law the bill setting the country's maritime boundaries, the new Baselines Law or Republic Act 9522 was signed by the President on Tuesday, March 10. The new law classifies the Kalayaan Island Group and the Scarborough Shoal as a "regime of islands under the Republic of the Philippines." This means that the country continues to lay claim over the disputed islands.