Philippines Submits Ecs Claim To Un: Ensuring Maritime Rights

The Philippine delegation, led by Ambassador Enrique A. Manalo, presented the West Palawan ECS claim before the UN CLCS. (Photo courtesy: DFA)

Philippines Submits Ecs Claim To Un: Ensuring Maritime Rights

By Bing Jabadan – TheNationWeek.com | July 31, 2026

MANILA, Philippines — On July 29, 2026, the Philippines formally presented its partial submission for an Extended Continental Shelf (ECS) covering the West Palawan region of the West Philippine Sea before the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS)—a milestone in the country’s decades-long effort to codify its legitimate maritime entitlements under international law.

Headed by Ambassador Enrique A. Manalo, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the UN, the delegation included officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the Department of Justice, the Office of the Solicitor General, the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA), and maritime law experts from the University of the Philippines. The submission was the culmination of 15 years of technical work led by NAMRIA’s Extended Continental Shelf Technical Working Group.

Deputy Assistant Secretary and DFA Spokesperson for Maritime Affairs Rogelio E. Villanueva Jr. stated that the move reaffirms the Philippines’ unwavering commitment to the UN Charter and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), anchoring the country’s position in a rules-based maritime order. The process, he emphasized, is rooted in the pursuit of peace, security, and shared prosperity—safeguarding fisheries and livelihoods, sustaining marine biodiversity, enabling unimpeded commerce, and fostering cooperation among all coastal states.

The claim is filed pursuant to Article 76 of UNCLOS, which allows coastal states to define the outer limits of their continental shelf beyond the standard 200-nautical-mile territorial boundary, up to a maximum of 350 nautical miles from established baselines. During the presentation, the Philippines urged the CLCS to consider authoritative legal rulings under UNCLOS—most notably the 2016 Arbitral Award that settled longstanding disputes over maritime entitlements in the South China Sea.

This marks the Philippines’ second formal ECS submission. In April 2009, the country filed a claim for the Philippine Rise, which the CLCS validated in 2012, securing an additional 135,506 square kilometers of seabed and subsoil under Philippine jurisdiction. At that time, the Philippines explicitly reserved the right to submit further claims in other maritime areas.

The latest filing underscores the Philippines’ consistent, law-based approach to asserting its sovereign rights—rejecting arbitrary claims and reinforcing that boundaries at sea must be determined by evidence, treaty, and due process. It stands as a definitive statement that the nation will pursue its maritime interests through established international mechanisms to secure a lawful and peaceful future for all Filipinos.

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