TO assert the country’s sovereign rights, a bill at the House of Representatives seeks the printing of the Philippine map, which will include the 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and Sabah, on its passports. The provision is part of the substitute bill that will repeal Republic Act 8239 or the “Philippine Passport Act of 1996,” which the House Committee on Foreign Affairs approved on Thursday. Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, author of one of the passport bills, said the inclusion of the Philippine map on the travel document “aims to emphasize and insist on our victory on the West Philippine Sea over China in the International Arbitral Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, and our legal and historical rights over Sabah.”“The inclusion of the map on our travel document is a strong statement that we are asserting our sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea and our EEZ,” he said. “He was vice chairman of the committee and was author of a bill to give a lifetime validity of passports issued to senior citizens,” he said. Other amendments proposed in the substitute bill were the issuance of an emergency travel document to Filipinos whose passports were either lost or have expired; criminalization of illegal withholding of passports by anyone, including foreigners, from their holders or owners; and the imposition of stiffer penalties.

Source: Manila Times August 21, 2020 16:06 UTC