WHAT IS OURS IS OURS

One of the ways to on how to protect a state from others to take it away is to know first
our basic laws in protecting our territories.

Just like in our country which is the Philippines, there are so many issues involved when
you tackled about state of sovereignty. There are countries claiming the rights, the islands and
also the sea in our areas. There are five Asean countries including the Philippines- have
conflicting territorial and maritime claims on the West Philippine Sea although our country
claimed this cause we have the rights and it is also based under the United Nations 1982
Convention of the Law Of the Sea, the UNCLOS does not grant sovereignty to countries over
certain areas but declares what countries may claim from that countries are granted 12 nautical
miles of territorial waters and 200 nautical miles of Exclusive Economic Zone or EEZ from
island and under to this. China also claiming rights to Panatag Shoal but based on UNCLOS that
this island is part of the Philippines EEZ, that we have the right to take fish, seabed resources,
including oil, gas in that particular area.

The concept of sovereignty is for a state to be recognized in international law, the state
must meet certain practical and normative requirements. The first set of criteria relates to
practical matters of powers and the state must have control over territory, people and institutions
of governance and must be competent to handle the environment.