The Archipelago Doctrine

Article 1, Section 1, of the 1973 Philippine Constitution, provided that "the national territory [of the Philippines] comprises the Philippine archipelago with all the islands and waters embraced therein and all the other territories belonging to the Philippines by historic right or legal title, including the territorial sea, the air space, the subsoil, the seabed, the insular shelves, and the other submarine areas over which the Philippines has sovereignty or jurisdiction''.

The same provision of the Philippine Constitution added: "The waters around, between, and connecting the islands of the archipelago, irrespective of their breadth and dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the Philippines."

Article 1 of the ratified Constitution of 1987 has, more or less, the same provisions.

The Archipelagic Doctrine on territorial limits of countries further states that the baselines from which the territorial sea of the Archipelago is to be determined consist of the straight lines connecting the outermost portions of the islands.Waters within the baselines are Philippine internal waters and waters outside the baselines but within the extent of the international treaty limits, comprise the country's territorial sea.

This doctrine means, therefore, that our country, with its thousands of islands and many seas, should be considered as a political unit for reasons of history, law, geography, economics, and security. Also, when questions involving territorial conflicts arise, the Philippines has this doctrine to support its claims.