Bajo de Masinloc chart with UN gets AFP nod

“The AFP fully supports the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the National Maritime Council, and the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority in the formal deposit of the official nautical chart for Bajo de Masinloc (Panatag Shoal) and its surrounding maritime zones with the United Nations Secretariat,” RAdm. Roy Vincent Trinidad, AFP spokesman for the West Philippine Sea, said in a statement. Trinidad said the milestone represents a crucial, legal and rules-based assertion of national domain, pursuant to United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), the Philippine Maritime Zones Act and the 2016 Arbitral Award. According to the DFA, the deposit was made pursuant to Article 16 of the Unclos which requires coastal states to give due publicity to official charts or lists of geographical coordinates showing the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.“By placing the chart on deposit with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Philippines ensures that its official maritime information forms part of the public international record,” the DFA said. Bajo de Masinloc, also known as Scarborough or Panatag Shoal, is a coral atoll in the West Philippine Sea lying 124 nautical miles west of Zambales. The area is a major flash point of violent encounters between Philippine vessels and Chinese maritime forces seeking to gain control of the contested waters. The feature generates a territorial sea extending up to 12 nautical miles from its normal baselines and a contiguous zone extending from 12 to 24 nautical miles as stated in Sections 2(b), 5 and 6 of the Philippine Maritime Zones Act; Articles 3, 33 and 121 of Unclos, as well as the 2016 South China Sea Arbitral Award. By depositing the chart, the DFA said Manila formally notifies the international community of its normal baselines and the geographic extent of its applicable authority and jurisdiction at Bajo de Masinloc.