Thus domestically the political branches of the

- Thus, domestically, 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.
40
Indeed, bills drawing nautical highways for sea lanes passage are
now pending in Congress.
41
- In the absence of municipal legislation, international law norms, now codified 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.
42
- Significantly, the right of innocent passage is a customary international law,
43
thus
automatically incorporated in the corpus of Philippine law.
44
No modern State can
validly invoke its sovereignty to absolutely forbid innocent passage that is
exercised in accordance with customary international law without risking
retaliatory measures from the international community.
- The fact that for archipelagic States, their archipelagic waters are subject to both
the right of innocent passage and sea lanes passage
45
does not place them in lesser
footing vis-à-vis continental coastal States which are subject, in their territorial
sea, to the right of innocent passage and the right of transit passage through
international straits.
- The imposition of these passage rights through archipelagic waters under
UNCLOS III was a concession by archipelagic States, in exchange for their right to
claim all the waters landward of their baselines, regardless of their depth or
distance from the coast , as archipelagic waters subject to their territorial
sovereignty .
- More importantly, the recognition of archipelagic States’ archipelago and the
14

waters enclosed by their baselines as one cohesive entity prevents the treatment
of their islands as separate islands under UNCLOS III.
46
- Separate islands generate their own maritime zones, placing the waters between
islands separated by more than 24 nautical miles beyond the States’ territorial
sovereignty, subjecting these waters to the rights of other States under UNCLOS
III.
47
- Petitioners’ invocation of non-executory constitutional provisions in Article II
(Declaration of Principles and State Policies)
48
must also fail.
- Our present state of jurisprudence considers the provisions in Article II as mere
legislative guides, which, absent enabling legislation, "do not embody judicially
enforceable constitutional rights x x x."
49
- Article II provisions serve as guides in
formulating and interpreting implementing legislation, as well as in interpreting
executory provisions of the Constitution.
- Although Oposa v. Factoran
50
treated the right to a healthful and balanced
ecology under Section 16 of Article II as an exception, the present petition lacks
factual basis to substantiate the claimed constitutional violation.