AMID Beijing’s protest against the bill establishing the Philippines’ territorial baseline, the country should not be negotiating with any party in relation to the issue, since it is the country’s right to do it.

Thus, said former senator Leticia Ramos Shahani, the first legislator to sponsor the archipelagic bill during the watch of former President Corazon Aquino.

“This exercise of drawing a baseline is a unilateral declaration of a state party to the convention. We should not be negotiating at this point with any party, that is our right to declare it but we must be guided by United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea [Unclos], otherwise aawayin din tayo,” said Shahani in an interview with the hosts of the radio program Karambola on dwIZ.

“So I think before the Chinese tell us to stop doing what is really a unilateral declaration, they should have more conversation at more informal level,” she added.

Shahani was reacting to China’s note verbale to the Philippine Embassy in Beijing in December 2007, right after the House of Representatives passed on second reading House Bill 3216, or “An Act Defining the Archipelagic Baselines of the Philippine Archipelago, Amending for the Purpose Republic Act 3046, as Amended by Republic Act 5446.”

Shahani said the government, especially the legislators, should not give in to the dictates of the Chinese.

Lakas Rep. Antonio Cuenco of Cebu, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and author of HB 3216, wants an all-party caucus to resolve the issue. The bill was shelved and was not passed on the third and final reading, apparently because of pressure from Beijing.

But Cuenco clarified Thursday that the bill was shelved owing to the comment of former solicitor general Estelito Mendoza, the government’s adviser on the matter, that the bill might not comply to the guidelines set by Unclos, the agreement signed by the Philippines with 82 countries concerning archipelagic baselines.

The bill included the Kalayaan Islands Group and Scarborough Shoal in the country’s baseline. This was described by Cuenco as radical position.

“Sinabi ni Mendoza hindi puwede ang baseline natin, nakausli kasi. Kung isasali natin ang Scarborough Shoal katabi lang ng Pilipinas. Pero ang baseline dapat straight, hindi puwedeng uusli sa kaliwa o kanan. Irregular eh, kung isasali natin iyan hindi tatanggapin iyan, saka iyong Nansha nakausli din. Pero ang claims natin diyan will remain, kasi isasali natin iyang dalawang lugar na iyan in a regime of islands…iyan ang suggestion ni Mendoza,” Cuenco said.

Shahani said the ball is now in Cuenco’s court.

“The ball is in Tony Cuenco’s court. But I think he would be a wimp if he gave in to the Chinese as an elected representative of the Cebuanos. You know what I mean. A foreign country should not dictate on us. We should be the ones to say what we should do in this situation and not to give in to the Chinese. Ngayon kung halimbawa may kakulangan sa ating declaration sa UN, ayusin natin because of our national interest, not because the Chinese dictating on us to do it,” Shahani said.

Also, Shahani said that if the Legislative, the Executive and the Judiciary would not reconcile on the matter, the establishment territorial baseline will be in trouble.

“Kung walang kasunduan sa gobyerno between the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary talagang papalpak iyan, so kaya nga importante dapat ang Pangulo natin, ang Malacañang, siya talaga ang dapat nakatutok diyan,” Shahani said.

Cuenco said what he and other legislators may do is to do some modifications of the bill by meeting in an all-party caucus.

But personally, he said he is in favor of the third reading approval. However, he said he was outvoted.

“So the solution here is for us to meet in all party caucus after the Lenten break. We are only asking for a month’s delay,” he said.

Speaker Prospero Nograles said the House needs a plenary action on the matter.

“Ibig sabihin, sa floor iyan. Pagbobotohan pa naming yan kung ibabalik sa komite o hindi. Ganoon ang status,” Nograles said.

Ex-senior government execs question GMA’s capability to govern

A GROUP of former senior government officials on Thursday questioned President Arroyo’s moral authority and capability to govern owing to the corruption scandals rocking her administration.

AMID Beijing’s protest against the bill establishing the Philippines’ territorial baseline, the country should not be negotiating with any party in relation to the issue, since it is the country’s right to do it.

SENATE President Manny Villar Jr., asserting that senators have not been remiss in their legislative duties despite ongoing inquiries into administration anomalies, reported that the Senate has passed 23 bills of national significance during the first regular session of the current Congress.

OLONGAPO CITY—Four persons, including a magazine model and Viva Films contract star, were found dead in a burned apartment here at dawn Thursday.

AN alarming majority of Moros believe that violence during elections is a way of life in Mindanao, the latest survey released by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) on Thursday revealed.

MAGALANG, Pampanga—This second-class town has two mayors.

This, as Romy Pecson, a businessman, assumed the mayoral post Tuesday while unseated Mayor Lyndon Cunanan, who remains in office, claimed that “business is as usual at the town hall” with him as the local chief executive.

THE National Police recovered 19 stolen vehicles in a series of operations in Mindanao, and uncovered in the process the operation of a carjacking syndicate operating in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.