ARTICLE I – NATIONAL TERRITORY

Importance of constitutional provision on NATIONAL TERRITORY

1. To fix our territorial jurisdiction for purposes of future conflicts with other nations;
2. To enable our people to know their territorial home; and
3. To protect out territorial integrity and make it difficult for any portion of our territory to
secede.

Extent of PHILIPPINE NATIONAL TERRITORY:

 The Philippine Archipelago with all the islands and waters embraced therein;
 All other territories over which the Philippines has sovereignty or jurisdiction including
the
 Territorial Sea
 Sea Bed
 Subsoil
 Insular Shelves
 Other submarine areas;
 Internal waters

NATIONAL TERRITORY
 Includes the Philippine Territory’s horizontal reach consisting of LAND & WATER;
 Upward reach consisting of AIR SPACE OVER THE LAND & WATERS;
 Downward reach consisting of SUBMARINE AREAS.
It covers the territorial areas set forth in the

 Treaty of Paris 1898

 Treaty of Washington 1900
 Treaty of 1930, including those areas and waters recognized in the CONVENTION OF
THE LAW of the sea of December 10, 1982. The last sentence articulates the
ARCHIPELAGIC PRINCIPLE.
Archipelagic Principle – it means that an archipelago shall be regarded as a single unit, so
that the waters around, between, and connecting the islands of the archipelago form part of
the internal waters of the state, subject to its exclusive sovereignty.

ARCHIPELAGO
 Derived from the Greek word “pelagos”, meaning SEA.
 Part of a sea studded with islands often synonymous with island groups or as a large
group of islands in an extensive body of water such as sea.
 It includes both SEA & ISLANDS which geographically may be considered as independent
whole.

 The Philippines is one of the largest archipelagos in the world.

 Its estimated 7,000 islands cover an area of about 300,440 square kilometers in lengthy
discontinuous coastline of 17,500 kilometers.

“ALL OTHER TERRITORIES OVER WHICH THE PHILIPPINES HAS SOVEREIGNTY OR

JURISDICTION”
This phrase acquired a meaning as a cover – all for pending Philippine claim to SABAH
against Malaysia and the possible claim to the so-called FREEDOMLAND and the MARIANAS
ISLANDS, including GUAM or any other territory over which the Philippines may in the future
find it has a right to claim.

SABAH – formerly North Borneo,

FREEDOMLAND – a group of islands known as “Spratley” islands in the South China Sea
which are also claimed by other nations notably:
 Taiwan
 People’s Republic of China
 The Socialist Republic of Vietnam

MARIANAS ISLANDS, INCLUDING GUAM – which according to historical documents

were under the control of the civil and the ecclesiastical authorities in the Philippines during the
SPANISH REGIME.

KALAYAAN – Presidential Decree No. 1596, dated June 11, 1978 declares the area within the
KALAYAAN ISLAND GROUP part of the PHILIPPINE TERRITORY and constitutes such area as a
separate and distinct municipality of the province of Palawan to be known as “Kalayaan”.
Other areas included in the PHILIPPINE ARCHIPELAGO:
The Terrestrial, Fluvial, and Aerial domains in the Philippines include:

1. Territorial Sea
 The part of the sea extending 12 nautical miles (19 km) from the low water mark.
 Also called:
 Marginal Sea; or
 Marginal Belt; or
 Marine Belt
2. Sea Bed
 Refers to the land that holds the SEA, lying beyond the SEASHORE, including the:
 Mineral Resources
 Natural Resources
3. Sub-Soil
 Includes everything beneath the surface soil, including:
 Mineral Resources
 Natural Resources
4. Insular Shelves
 The submerged portions of a continent or offshore island which slope gently
seaward from the low-water line to a point where a substantial break in grade
occurs, at which point at the bottom slopes seaward at a considerable increase
in slope until the great ocean depths are reached.
5. Other Submarine Areas
 Refer to all areas under the Territorial Sea

Co-Extensive with the TERRITORIAL SEA as part of the NATIONAL TERRITORY

necessarily the:
 Sea Bed;
 Insular Shelves; and
 Other Submarine Areas

Three-fold Division of NAVIGABLE WATERS:

From the standpoint of INTERNATIONAL LAW, the waters of the Earth are divided into
three:
 1. Inland or Internal Waters
 The parts of the sea within the land territory
 They are considered in the same light as:
 Rivers
 Canals
 Lakes, within the land territory state.
 Sometimes called, “National Waters”
2. Territorial Sea
 Belt of water outside and parallel to the coastline or to the outer limits of the
inland or internal waters.
Territorial Waters of a State – the inland or internal waters and the territorial sea
together comprise.
Right of Innocent Passage – Over these waters, a state exercises sovereignty to
the same extent as its land territory but foreign vessels through the territorial
sea.
3. High or Open Areas
 Are waters that lie seaward of the territorial sea
 The open seas are the international waters which means they are not subject to
the sovereignty of any state but every state has equal rights of uses in them.

EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone)

 Presidential Decree No. 1599, dated June 11, 1978 establishes EEZ of the Philippines
extending to a distance of 200 nautical miles beyond and from the baselines from which
Territorial Sea is measured
 Philippine EEZ under the UNITED NATIONS LAW OF THE SEA CONVENTION covers an
area of 395,400 square nautical miles of water.
 The area is under PHILIPPINE JURISDICTION for the exclusive exploitation of all the
resources, living and non-living, in the area.