President Arroyo has signed the baselines bill into law to reaffirm the Philippines' territory and establish a basis for its economic and jurisdictional claims over nearby areas like the Spratly Islands, as provided by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Wednesday Mrs. Arroyo signed the baselines bill into Republic Act No. 9522, despite the opposition from China which claims "indisputable sovereignty" over the Spratly Islands.

Ermita said the new baselines law will become the basis from which the Philippines' exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and extended continental shelf (ECS), which UNCLOS established in 1982 for archipelagic countries, would be drawn.

EEZ extends 200 nautical miles from an archipelago's baselines, while ECS extends 350 nautical miles from the baselines. A nautical mile is equal to 1.852 of a kilometer, or a little longer than a mile.

The baselines bill establishes 101 basepoints around the Philippine archipelago which are connected by straight lines to form the Philippine baselines.

Center for Maritime and Ocean Affairs Secretary General Henry Bensulto explained that the basepoints consists of the outermost points of the outermost islands of the Philippines' main archipelago.

The Spratly Islands, however, are not included in the islands enclosed by the Philippine archipelagic baselines, and are instead treated as "regime of islands" under Philippine control.

Bensulto likened the status of the Spratly Islands as regime of islands to the relationship of Hawaii to the mainland United States, in which Hawaii is not part of the baselines of the US, but remains to be a territory of the US.

He said the baselines law defines the Philippine archipelagic territory according to UNCLOS' geological definition of an archipelago--that an archipelago is a compact grouping of islands.

Ermita said the Spratly Islands are not enclosed in the new Philippine baselines, but remain to be under Philippine territory by virtue of a presidential decree issued by former President Ferdinand Marcos, and the 1987 Constitution which speaks of the Philippine territory as the main archipelago and other islands that surround it over which it exercises jurisdiction.

Ermita said the exclusion of the Spratly Islands in the new baselines does not diminish the Philippines' claims over it, but instead establishes the Philippines' economic and jurisdictional claims as provided under UNCLOS.

Ermita said the Philippines could not claim the 200-nautical mile EEZ and the 350-nautical mile ECS without establishing a baseline that is compliant with UNCLOS.

Mrs. Arroyo signed the baselines bill into law last March 10, just a day before new Chinese ambassador Liu Jianchao was scheduled to present his credentials as new ambassador to the Philippines.

Ermita said the signing of the bill into law reaffirms Philippine sovereignty and national interest among its neighbors, and sends a signal that contestations to the Philippines' claim over territory should be settled according to the Declaration of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea which was signed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China.

Meanwhile, former Sen. Orly Mercado was sworn as new "Philippine permanent representative to the ASEAN." Ermita earlier said Mercado's nomination as ambassador to China had been withdrawn and that he would be given another diplomatic post instead.