Govt seeks dismissal of petition vs Baselines Law

MANILA, Philippines - The government has asked the Supreme Court to junk the petition seeking to declare as unconstitutional the controversial Baselines Law, which the Congress passed early this year. In a 51-page comment, the government through Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera asked the SC to dismiss the 70-page petition for certiorari and prohibition filed by UP law professors Merlin Magallona and Harry Roque, Akbayan partylist Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel, and 38 law students who questioned the constitutionality of Republic Act 9522. Devanadera likewise asked the court to deny the petitioners’ request for the issuance of a temporary restraining order against the implementation of the law and its registration before the United Nations. She explained that the request is already moot and academic since the government, through the Philippine Mission to the UN, had already deposited an original duplicate copy of the Baselines law with the Secretary-General of the United Nations through the UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (Dealos). She said this occurred last April 3, 2009, just two days after the petition was filed before the high court. “Where the acts sought to be enjoined have already become fait accompli, or accomplished or consummated, injunction would not lie," the OSG said. Signing as special counsel for the OSG was former Solicitor General Estelito Mendoza. The petitioners believed that RA 9522 had shrunk the country's boundaries by 15,000 square nautical miles of territorial sea, and that it is unconstitutional since it radically revised the definition of the Philippine archipelago under the Treaty of Paris, which they said was in violation of Article 1 of the Constitution incorporating the said definition. They further claimed that the law weakened the territorial claim to the Kalayaan Island group (KIG) and altogether abandons the country’s claim to Sabah, as a consequence, allegedly “dismembers a large portion of the national territory of the Philippines." But the OSG said the law is not unconstitutional and the petitioners only misread the law, or have read into it provisions which are not there, while their apprehensions are unfounded. RA 9522 has declared the Philippines as an “archipelagic state" through standards under the UN Convention on the Laws of the Seas (Unclos) that uses the straight baselines method in delineating the national territory. The straight baselines method uses straight lines to connect the outermost points of the outermost islands of the country, with the overall shape following the general contour of the archipelago. The Philippine Congress' approval of the measure last February 17 prompted the Chinese Foreign Ministry to lodge a “stern protest" through the Philippine Embassy in Beijing, saying the bill violated China's "indisputable sovereignty" over the Kalayaan Island Group and the Scarborough Shoal. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed the law last March 10. - with Carlo Lorenzo, GMANews.TV