SPEAKER Prospero Nograles said on Wednesday the House will vote for the third and final reading the bill establishing the Philippines’ territorial baseline even if it has some defects, which he claimed could be remedied by the bicameral conference committee.

Lakas Rep. Antonio Cuenco of Cebu City, chairman of the House foreign affairs committee and author of House Bill 3216, or “An Act Defining the Archipelagic Baselines of the Philippine Archipelago, Amending for the Purpose Republic Act (RA) 3046, as Amended by RA  5446” also on Wednesday said  the House will push “full speed ahead” with the approval of the measure when session resumes on April 21.

Cuenco said sending back the bill to his committee will just delay its approval.

“We will push for the third reading approval. Full speed ahead. Damn the torpedoes. This matter has been dragging a long time already,” Cuenco said. 

Nograles said the House leadership is behind Cuenco and whatever he wants the legislators will support him.

“If chairman Tony Cuenco insists that the baseline bill be voted on third reading, we will do so,” Nograles said.

“If there are some defects, then perhaps these can be cured in a bicameral conference committee with the Senate because any proposal will never become a law until concurred in by the Senate.

Nograles acknowledged that the Senate version would be different from the House because Sen. Miriam Santiago, chairman of the Senate’s foreign relations committee, has a different opinion on the matter.

Santiago on Tuesday warned against tinkering with the country’s territorial limits with a new baseline bill declaring the Philippines as an archipelagic state because it would reduce, not expand, the country’s territory and would require a change in the Constitution.

Santiago said the Philippines would be entitled to only 12 nautical miles of the territorial sea under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).

“If the Philippines declares itself an archipelagic state, our zone of sovereignty would collapse. Our internal waters would become archipelagic waters where the ships of all states will enjoy the right of innocent passage,” she said.

Solon seeks probe into Napocor’s ‘overpriced’ coal purchases

A MILITANT legislator is seeking an investigation into the alleged awarding of a P320-million coal-supply contract by the National Power Corp. (Napocor) to a local dealer which appeared to be nonexistent.

SENATE investigators are poised to pursue next week their stalled inquiry into alleged anomalies attending the $329-million national broadband deal (NBN) with Zhong Xing Telecom Equipment Co. Ltd. (ZTE)

TWO soldiers were killed, while six others were wounded in a series of encounters with communist New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas in the triboundary of Abra, Mountain Province and Ilocos Sur, the military reported on Wednesday.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Jema’ah Islamiyah (JI) terrorists and Abu Sayyaf bandits have freed the teacher they seized after killing a priest in Tawi-Tawi, a ranking police official said on Wednesday.

THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) held on Wednesday a river forum to tackle the problems and solution to the looming water crisis as a result of the continued degradation of rivers and other bodies of water in the Philippines.

SPEAKER Prospero Nograles said on Wednesday the House will vote for the third and final reading the bill establishing the Philippines’ territorial baseline even if it has some defects, which he claimed could be remedied by the bicameral conference committee.

SOME 200 undocumented Filipino workers stranded in Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, including those who stayed under the Al-Khandara bridge in Jeddah, are set to be repatriated early April.