PROPOSED MASTERAL COURSE ON LAW OF THE SEA IN EUROPE TO BENEFIT ARCHIPELAGIC COUNTRIES LIKE RP

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. (PDP-Laban) urged DFA Secretary Alberto Romulo and Solicitor General Alfredo Benipayo to pursue a suggestion he had broached to Education authorities and other government officials regarding the offer of post-graduate university course in the Netherlands and Belgium that will help develop the expertise of our government lawyers in the field of the law of the sea.

The proposal was broached by the Senate Minority Leader during his recent working visit to the two European countries in the hope that government lawyers from archipelagic countries like the Philippines can avail of this academic program.

He discussed the proposal with Henk Roborg, Director General for higher education and vocational training at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science Office in the Hague.

“I shared with him the view that as an archipelagic country, we are concerned with the identification and protection of our continental shelf and of the marine aquatic resources with the 200-mile limit from our coastlines,” Pimentel said.

He said Mr. Roborg told him that the proposed post-graduate degree in the law of the sea could – with modifications – be worked out. He said he also informed the Dutch education official that he would endorse the same proposal to Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo and Solicitor General Alfredo Benipayo.

During his visit to Brussels in Belgium, Pimentel said he presented to Dr. Eric Franck, professor on the law of the sea of the Vrij Universteit of Brussels, the idea of an appropriate University in that country offering a course leading to a masteral or doctoral degree on the law of the sea.

He said he discussed the same proposal in another meeting with Director Frank Van Laiken of the Institute of Transportation and Maritime Management, Dean Willy Winkelmans, Prof. Dr. Hilde Meersman and Prof. Eric Wan Hooydonk, all of the University of Antwerp.

Pimentel said Director Van Laeken and the professors from the two Belgian universities replied that it might be easier to have a post-graduate course on maritime management with subjects on the law of the sea than to create a course specifically on the law of the sea.

“They told me one of the problems was the sustainability of the course in that they cannot be sure that it would have sufficient number of enrollees from year to year.” the Senate Minority Leader said.

Date: October 27, 2004
Ref: Omeng - (02)5526731