• Summary

This legal document contains “Republic Act No. 9522 of 28 July 2008 to Define the Archipelagic Baselines of the Philippines and for other Purposes”. Section 1 of this RA shall be the amendment for Section 1 of RA No. 3046 and Section 1 of RA No. 5446 which amended RA No. 3046.

Notably, in this RA No. 9522, the Kalayaan Island Group and the Scarborough Shoal are treated as “Regime of Islands”, as provided in Article 121 of UNCLOS. Therefore, their baselines are no longer a part of the Philippines’ archipelagic baselines. This change also signifies the Philippines’ respect for Article 5 of the ASEAN Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea. Finally, Section 1 of this RA has revised the Philippines’ archipelagic baselines from Section 1 of RA No. 3046 and 5446 that there is no baseline of the archipelagic baselines enclosing archipelago that exceeds 125 nautical miles, as provided in Article 47 of UNCLOS 1982. In RA No. 3046 (in 1961) and 5446 (in 1968), Line 27 (TONGQUILI.-Sumbasumba I.) was 259,400 Metres (140.065 nautical miles), which had not been revised since 1982 until the adoption of RA No. 9522 in 2008.

• Document: Republic Act No. 9522 of 28 July 2008 to Define the Archipelagic Baselines of the Philippines and for other Purposes