Author Archives: Pia Benosa

UP LAW to host 2016 Stetson Southeast Asian Regional Rounds (SEARR)

The University of the Philippines Law Center, through its Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, invites law schools from all over Southeast Asia, to participate in the Southeast Asian Regional Rounds (“SEARR”) of the 20th Stetson International Environmental Law Moot Court Competition (“Stetson”). The SEARR will be held in UP College of Law in Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines on January 14-16, 2016.

The International Finals of the Stetson, which will be held in Gulfport, Florida on April 13-16, 2016 is the most prestigious international environmental law moot court competition focusing on important global environmental challenges. Since 1996, law students from universities all over the globe have participated in the Stetson. Information on the Stetson may be accessed at the Stetson Law website (http://www.stetson.edu/law/international/iemcc/).

In order to qualify for the Stetson International Finals, participants must compete in regional competitions.  ASEAN countries Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, are required to participate in the SEARR before advancing to the International Finals. The SEARR is a great opportunity for law students to meet and compete with other universities in the Southeast Asian region. Law schools interested in participating in the SEARR may send an e-mail to the organizing committee at 3rdsearr@gmail.com.

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IMLOS holds symposium on Maritime Issues of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro

imlos

The Institute of Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea (IMLOS) of the University of the Philippines Law Center held a symposium on the legal implications of the New Bangsamoro Waters and the Zones of Joint Cooperation last March 18, 2013 at the UP Law Center. The speakers were experts and individuals involved in the process of drafting the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.

Professor Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, chairperson of the GPH Peace Panel, discussed the Addendum on Bangsamoro Waters and Zones of Joint Cooperation. She discussed the impact of wealth sharing and power sharing on the Bangsamoro Waters, and touched on the topic of preferential fishing rights in the Zones of Joint Cooperation for the Bangsamoro and other indigenous peoples in the adjoining provinces.

IMLOS Director Professor Jay Batongbacal, who assisted the GRP Panel on crafting the initial ideas for the Bangsamoro Waters discussed the legal geography of the new Bangsamoro Region.

Professor Dante Gatmaytan, a constitutional law expert commissioned to assist in working out the terms on natural resources and ancestral domain, discussed the constitutionality of the Bangsamoro Basic Law. He describes the agreement as a test on the limits of our Constitution in the context that it is reconciling a separatist movement with a constitutional regime. He concludes that Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro can be accommodated by the present legal framework and the enumeration of powers therein is in consonance with Article X of the 1987 Constitution.

Dr. Diane Desierto, an expert in international economic law and professor at the University of Hawaii – Richardson School of Law, provided views on investment implications of the Bangsamoro agreement and its annexes. She pointed out things to consider under the annexes that need to be managed in terms of the expectations of the Bangsamoro having exclusive powers over investment and the central government spelling out investment policies on the treaty level and the national legislative level.

Reactions and questions were raised by representatives from different sectors such as fisheries, petroleum, maritime transportation, marine conservation and protection, and indigenous peoples. Undersecretary for Political Affairs Chito Gascon joined the speakers in responding to the reactions and inquiries raised by the audience.

Prof. Batongbacal ended the symposium with his synthesis of the speakers’ messages and the reactions of the audience. He said that there are still several issues to be resolved, such as clarifications on the impact of the Bangsamoro Basic Law with existing laws and the creation of dispute resolution mechanisms, as the agreement was not designed to cover all the issues that may arise. The various points raised in the symposium will be forwarded to the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, and the GPH Peace Panel.

The signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro is set tomorrow, March 27, 2014, at the Malacanang Palace which will end the seventeen years of negotiations between the Philippine Government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

– JM Plaza

Originally published here.

Legal Scholars to Discuss Implications of Bangsamoro Waters Addendum at UP

Bangsamoro Symposium

On Tuesday, March 18, the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea (UP-IMLOS) will be hosting a symposium on the legal implications of the latest addendum to the Bangsamoro Framework Agreement. Signed on January 25, 2014, the addendum supplements the earlier provisions of the Agreement on the wealth-sharing scheme to govern the relations of the Philippine Government and the resulting Bangsamoro entity, with the emergent concepts of Bangsamoro Waters and Zones of Joint Cooperation in the Sulu Sea.

Government Peace Panel Chairperson Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, also a professor of political science at the UP, will provide a background on the Agreement and the Addendum, and their salient provisions. UP-IMLOS Director Prof. Jay Batongbacal, meanwhile, will discuss how the “regional waters” up to 12 nautical miles from the low-water mark of the coasts of the land territory of the Bangsamoro and the “zones of cooperation” relate to natural resource allocation schemes under current law.  UP Law Professor Dan Gatmaytan will explore the implications of the creation of what is essentially a “super-autonomous” region in the south. Former UP Law Professor Diane Desierto, now co-director of the ASEAN Law and Integration Center (ALIC) at the University of Hawai’i, will delve into the investment implications of the Framework Agreement. The talks will provide the groundwork for participating agencies and stakeholders to discuss the best ways of implementing the agreement through the prospective Basic Law for the Bangsamoro.

The workshop will be held from 9:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. at the 2nd floor conference room of the UP Law Center (Bocobo Hall), Diliman, Quezon City. For more information, please call (02)920-5514 local 218.