Proclamation No. 370




MALACAÑAN PALACE MANILA BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES [ Proclamation No. 370, March 20, 1968 ] DECLARING AS SUBJECT TO THE JURISDICTION AND CONTROL OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES ALL MINERAL AND OTHER NATURAL RESOURCES IN THE CONTINENTAL SHELF OF THE PHILIPPINES. WHEREAS, the Government of the Republic of the Philippines believes that further efforts to explore for and exploit new sources of petroleum and other natural resources should be encouraged; WHEREAS, the Congress of the Philippines, in Republic Act No. 387, as amended, known as the “Petroleum Act of 1949”, declared that “all natural deposits or occurrences of petroleum or natural gas in public and/or private lands in the Philippines, whether found in, on or under the surface of dry lands, creeks, rivers, lakes, or other submerged lands within the territorial waters or on the continental shelf, or its analogue in an archipelago, seaward from the shores of the Philippines which are not within the territories of other countries, belong to the Republic of the Philippines inalienably and imprescriptively”; and WHEREAS, it is established international practice sanctioned by the law of nations that a coastal state is vested with jurisdiction and control over the mineral and other natural resources in its seabed and subsoil of the continental shelf adjacent to its coasts but outside the area of the territorial sea to where the depth of the superjacent waters admits of the exploitation of such resources; NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, do hereby proclaim that all the mineral and other natural resources in the seabed and subsoil of the continental shelf adjacent to the Philippines, but outside the area of its territorial sea to where the depth of the superjacent waters admits of the exploitation of such resources, including living organisms belonging to sedentary species, appertain to the Philippines and are subject to its exclusive jurisdiction and control for purposes of exploration and exploitation. In any case where the continental shelf is shared with an adjacent state, the boundary shall be determined by the Philippines and that state in accordance with legal and equitable principles. The character of the waters above these submarine areas as high seas and that of the airspace above those waters, is not affected by this proclamation.1aшphi1 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Republic of the Philippines to be affixed. Done in the City of Manila, this 20th day of March, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and sixty-eight. (Sgd.) FERDINAND E. MARCOS President of the Philippines By the President: (Sgd.) RAFAEL M. SALAS Executive Secretary The Lawphil Project - Arellano Law Foundation