SENATE minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. yesterday assailed Malacañang for blocking the approval of House Bill 3216 which would define the country's archipelagic map.

"It is incumbent upon us to protect and assert our territorial rights over the seas around us, and even to the extent of 200 nautical miles from the edge of our seas as our exclusive economic zone," he said.

Under HB 3216, the country's archipelagic baselines would include the Kalayaan Island Group or Spratly islands and Scarborough Shoal.

Malacañang asked for the postponement of the passage of the bill and for its re-commitment to the House committee on foreign affairs to incorporate amendments proposed by the Commission on Maritime and Ocean Affairs under the Office of the President.

The Palace's move came after Beijing sent a note to Manila that putting "the Scarborough Shoal and some other Nansha (Spratly) reefs and islands inside the baseline of the Philippines will not be conducive to stability. (and will) also disturb China-Philippine cooperation in the area."

Pimentel said Congress and the executive branch should adopt a common position on the issue of the urgent legislation to protect its territorial right over the disputed Kalayaan Island Group.

He said the bill should be prioritized by the Senate to complement a similar undertaking by the House and to beat the May 2009 deadline set by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS).

Pimentel said the admission of Philippine National Oil Co. president Antonio Cailao in a published statement that the entire 142,886-square kilometer area covered by the 2005 Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking in the South China Sea among the Philippines, China and Vietnam "is all within Philippine territory" makes it more imperative for the Philippines to define its archipelagic baselines.

"If what he (Cailao) said is true, all the more we should push for a definition of our territory whatever the opinion of other countries may be," Pimentel said.

He said Congress and Malacañang should resolve their differences over the configuration of the Philippine archipelagic map without in any way creating the impression that the country's legal and historic claim to the Kalayaan Island Group may be compromised or weakened.