BLOCK D 2025

Case Title Magallona v G.R. No 187167 Prepared by:

Ermita

Ponente Carpio Topic Listed in the Quasi-public Ceceliz De Los Santos

Syllabus corporations

Doctrine/Rule Relevant Codal Provision/Enumeration of

requirements or condition

Validity of R.A. 9255

FACTS:
 Petitioners Magallona et al assailed RA 9522’s constitutionality as it reduces PH maritime territory
o Reduces the PH maritime territory and the reach of PH state’s sovereign power as embodied in
the terms of the Treaty of Paris and violation of Art 1
o Opens the country’s waters landward of the baselines to maritime passage
o 9522’s classification of the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) as well as the Scarborough Shoal as a
“regime of islands” results in the loss of a large maritime area which essentially prejudices the
livelihood of fishermen living along the waters

W/N (issue) W/N RA 9522 is unconstitutional?

 RA9522 adjusted the country’s archipelagic baselines and classified the baseline regime of nearby
territories.
o Amended the old Baselines law (RA3046), which was compliant to UNCLOS I and codified
the sovereign right of states parties over their territorial sea but did not determine its breadth
o RA9522, is compliant with UNCLOS III, which prescribes the water-land ratio, length and
contour of baselines of archipelagic states like the Philippines and sets the deadline for the
application for the extended continental shelf
o RA9522 therefore shortened 1 baseline, optimized the location of some basepoints around the
archipelago and classified adjacent territories, namely the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) and
the Scarborough Shoal, as “regimes of islands” whose islands generate their own applicable
maritime zones. Constitutional.
 First, RA9522 is a statutory tool to demarcate the country’s maritime zones and continental shelf under
the UNCLOS III, and not to delineate Philippine territory.
o UNCLOS III has nothing to do with the acquisition or loss of territory
o IRegulates sea-use rights over maritime zones, contiguous zone, and continental shelves that
UNCLOS III delimits
o On the other hand, baselines laws such as RA9522 are enacted by the state parties to mark out
specific basepoints along their coasts from which baselines are drawn, either straight or
contoured, to serve as geographic starting points to measure the breadth of the maritime zones
and continental shelf.
o Gives notice to the rest of the international community of the scope of the maritime space and
submarine areas within which states parties exercise treaty-based rights
 Second, RA9522’s use of the framework of regime of islands to determine the maritime zones of the
KIG and the Scarborough Shoal are not inconsistent with the Philippines’ claim of sovereignty

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BLOCK D 2025

o Petitioners believe that such weakens our territorial claim. A look at RA3046 and RA9522
show that the latter mainly followed the base points mapped by the former; under both, the KIG
and the Scarborough Shoal are still outside of the baselines drawn around the Philippine
archipelago. RA9522, by optimizing the location of the basepoints, increase the Philippines’
total maritime space. Congress, if they included both islands inside our baselines, might be
accused of “departing to an appreciable extent from the general configuration of the
archipelago.”
 Third hilippines still exercises sovereignty over these waters under UNCLOS III
o The political branches of the Philippine government, in the competent discharge of their
constitutional powers, may pass legislation designating routes within the archipelagic waters to
regulate innocent and sea lanes passage. In the absence of municipal legislation, international
law norms in UNCLOS III operate to grant innocent passage rights over the territorial sea or
archipelagic waters, subject to the treaty’s limitations and conditions for their exercise.


Ruling The petition is DISMISSED

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