Where in the world is the West Philippine Sea?

West Philippine Sea, atin ito!” has now become a badge of patriotism.

But where exactly is the West Philippine Sea (WPS)? What exactly are our children and grandchildren supposed to die for?

Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Gilbert Teodoro was asked this question at a Senate hearing on the 2026 defense budget last Friday. He said that the outer edge of the WPS is the 200-nautical-mile limit of the Philippine exclusive economic zone (EEZ) measured from the archipelagic baselines. He said the WPS consists of nine main islands. Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian echoed him.

Yet, Kalayaan Municipality (Pag-asa Island), Northeast Cay (Parola Island), Itu Aba (Ligaw Island,) Fiery Cross Reef (Kagitingan Island), Cuarteron Reef, and several other features that are occupied and/or claimed by the Philippines are situated outside our EEZ. Does the DND mean that these features are not part of the WPS? They are not “atin”?

Conversely, Amboyna Cay, a high-tide elevation or legal rock that generates its own territorial sea (TS), is found inside the Philippine EEZ. Yet, unbeknownst to most Filipinos, we do not claim Amboyna Cay. That, at least, is what Annex 97 of the Philippine Memorial in the South China Sea (SCS) Arbitration seems to state: the Cay is a feature occupied by Malaysia but claimed by Vietnam and China only. The Philippines did not appear as its claimant in its own list of SCS features. On what basis, then, should the WPS encompass the Cay and its TS?

Annex 97 identified 10 SCS features that are occupied by the Philippines, 19 features occupied by Vietnam, and nine features occupied by China are also claimed by the Philippines. If the WPS consists of only nine main islands, as DND Secretary Teodoro said, what has become of the other 29 Philippine-claimed features?

The confusion stems from the 2012 Administrative Order No. 29 and the 2024 Republic Act No. 12064, or the Philippine Maritime Zones Act (PMZA).

Under AO 29, the WPS is defined as the “maritime areas on the western side of the Philippine archipelago … [including] Luzon Sea as well as the waters around, within, and adjacent to the [KIG] and Bajo De Masinloc, also known as Scarborough Shoal.” The phrase “waters around, within, and adjacent to the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG)” echoes Presidential Decree (PD) 1596 (1978). Section 1 of PD 1596 defined the KIG as the “area within the following boundaries…including the seabed, subsoil, continental margin, and air space.” In effect, the KIG is an offshore archipelago.

A third of the KIG is located outside the Philippine EEZ. Thus, under AO 29, the WPS’ outer edge would be the westernmost boundaries of the KIG, well beyond our EEZ.

Unfortunately, the SCS Arbitral Tribunal held under paragraph 574 of the Merit Award that not only China but “even the Philippines could not declare archipelagic baselines surrounding the Spratly Islands.” Section 1 of Presidential Decree No. 1596, constituting the KIG as an offshore archipelago, cannot coexist with paragraph 574 of the Merit Award.

Addressing the incompatibility between the Merit Award and PD 1596, Section 18 of the PMZA declared that it amended Section 1 of PD 1596. Indeed, under Section 5 of the PMZA, the KIG now consists of rocks with a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles.

What, then, became the limit of the WPS? Section 2 of the PMZA redefined the WPS as to now mean the “maritime zones of the Philippines on the western side of the Philippine archipelago and … the maritime features of the [KIG].”

Yet, to repeat, the limit of the WPS cannot be the outer edge of the Philippine EEZ, as this would exclude Kalayaan Municipality/Pag-asa Island and other rocks that are outside this maritime zone.

Making the “maritime features of the Kalayaan Island Group” the limit of the WPS will lead to even more absurdities. Pag-asa and other rocks that are outside our EEZ are separated from each other and from the rest of the KIG by high seas. No state can appropriate the high seas as territory. Thus, to make these scattered rocks and their territorial seas the limit of the WPS is to depict a disintegrated and disconnected body of water, in violation of every rule on geographic and hydrographic nomenclature.

In early September this year, it was reported that the Department of Education and the National Task Force for the WPS have developed a booklet, “Stories of Teacher Jun.” It is an instructional material for teaching Araling Panlipunan classes of Grades 4, 6, and 10 about the WPS. Will the booklet teach the next generation of Filipinos such a convoluted and ill-informed view of the WPS? Will billions of pesos be wasted on perpetuating the confusion over the WPS?

We need to know exactly what our children and grandchildren are supposed to die for. Who knows, that time may not come once we understand what and where in the world the WPS is.

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Melissa Loja and Romel Bagares are independent Filipino scholars of international law.