On 14 June 2024, in accordance with Article 76(8) of UNCLOS, the Philippines submitted to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) information on the limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured in the West Palawan Region. Consistent with UNCLOS, “[t]his Submission is made without prejudice to the right of the Philippines to make other Submissions on other areas at a future time” (Executive Summary (2024) p. 1).
This follows the seperate April 2009 submission of the Philippines in the Benham Rise region, for which recommendations (April 2012) and subsequent final and binding outer limits of the continental shelf were established based on said recommendations (UNCLOS, Article 76(8); ‘Benham Rise’ since renamed ‘Philippine Rise’ in May 2017).
At the time of writing, communications received and published with regard to this partial submission in the West Palawan Region include China (18 June 2024). Further communications may be foreseen given that the Executive Summary (2024) provides:
The Philippines notes that the 2009 joint submission of Malaysia and Viet Nam, the 2009 submission of Viet Nam in the northern area and the 2019 submission of Malaysia that were submitted to the CLCS cover areas that may overlap with the area of this Submission.
Executive Summary (2024) p. 4
These earlier submissions were based on Article 76 of UNCLOS and are generally consistent with the principles affirmed in the 2016 Award on the Merits in the South China Sea Arbitration. The Philippines manifests its willingness to discuss with the relevant States the delimitation of the maritime boundaries.
The delineation of the continental shelf beyond 200 M is without prejudice to future delimitation with the limits of the territorial sea areas of individual high tide features in the South China Sea.
For more information see the statement of the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs.
De Maribus 