By Joyce Pangco Pa?ares

PRESIDENT Arroyo has signed the law affirming the Philippines? claim on its territorial waters and archipelagic baseline ahead of the May 13 deadline imposed by the United Nations.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Mrs. Arroyo signed the baselines law, or Republic Act 9522, Tuesday, ?sending the message to the whole world that we are affirming our national sovereignty and protecting our national interest.?

Under the new law, the Kalayaan Island Group, Scarborough Shoal and Sabah are classified as a ?regime of islands? under the Republic of the Philippines.

?The Kalayaan Island Group and Scarborough Shoal are not within our baseline. Whatever problems we may have [on the contested territories], whatever action will have to be contested, will have to be done within the code of conduct agreed upon by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China,? Ermita said.

The law comes as the Philippines?compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which gave Manila and other signatories to the accord until May 13 to define their territorial baselines or lose their claims on these territories.

Henry Bensurto Jr., secretary-general of the Commission on Maritime and Ocean Affairs secretariat, said the law sets 101 basepoints in accordance with the UN accord.

?Whatever claims we have on these territories, whatever their nature are, they are all unaffected because this is just a technical baseline. The KIG, for example, is covered by Presidential Decree 1596 issued by the late President Ferdinand Marcos,? Bensurto said.

?It doesn?t mean that we are giving them away because they are not within our baseline. They remain to be part of Philippine territory but treated as regime of islands and not part of the main archipelago, the same concept as Hawaii in relation to mainland United States,? Bensurto said.