Filipinos divided on territorial claims in South China Sea

in July 1997, Judge Eliodoro C. Ubiadas of the regional trial court of Olongapo city in Zambales province in a verdict dismissed, for lack of legal basis, the illegal entry charges filed against 21 Chinese fishermen caught in Scarborough Shoal

Legal and academic documents and official maps in the Philippines show that its controversial territorial claims in the South China Sea has been disputable even inside the country over the past three decades.

Last week, the Philippine Congress passed the 2009 baseline bill that extends the archipelago's territory to include China's Huangyan Island and part of Nansha Islands in the South China Sea. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has lodged a stern protest, denouncing Manila's claim as "illegal and invalid."

But back in July 1997, Judge Eliodoro C. Ubiadas of the regional trial court of Olongapo city in Zambales province in a verdict dismissed, for lack of legal basis, the illegal entry charges filed against 21 Chinese fishermen detained seven nauticalmiles southeast of Huangyan Island, or Scarborough Shoal known by Filipinos.

The Philippines claimed the area is its territory or belongs to its exclusive economic zone. But Judge Ubiadas invoked a provision in the Presidential Decree 1599 stating that even though the exclusive economic zone extends to a distance of 200 nautical miles from the baselines, in cases where the outer limits of Philippines' exclusive economic zone overlap that of an adjacent or neighboring state, the common boundaries shall be determined byan agreement with the state concerned. Source: Xinhua