Talk:List of ports in the Philippines

Naming: West Philippine Sea vs. South China Sea
Here, I've reverted a change in a section heading from West Philippine Sea (WPS) back to South China Sea (SCS). I had made this same change here, in October of 2014. A bit of history, taken from the South China Sea article: "[F]ollowing an escalation of the Spratly Islands dispute in 2011, various Philippine government agencies started using the name "West Philippine Sea". A PAGASA spokesperson said that the sea to the east of the Philippines will continue to be called the Philippine Sea."

As WPS designation came into use in the Philippines, it began to be used erroneously there as an alternative designation for or as a preferred designation over the SCS designation, as if the SCS had been renamed the WPS (see e.g., ). This led to the issuance in September 2012 of Administrative Order No. 29, mandating that all government agencies use the name West Philippine Sea to refer to the parts of the South China Sea within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone, and tasked NAMRIA to use the name in official maps (see e.g.,). Unfortunately, many Filipinos did not, and still have not, picked up on the clarification limiting the application of the WPS designation to the portion of the SCS which lies within the Philippine EEZ. Presently, the West Philippine Sea article is a redirect to the South China Sea article, and this situation is explained a bit there.

Also, the body of water generally referred to as the Philippine Sea lies to the east of the Philippines, not the to the west, and does not include what is sometimes referred to in the Philippines as the West Philippine Sea. Geographically, the Philippine Sea lies above the Philippine Sea Plate, The western part of that plate is called the West Philippine Sea Basin (see links at, and that designation has nothing whatever to do with the body of water lying to the west of the Philippines which is sometimes called, and is officially designated by the Philippines, the West Philippine Sea.

Consequently, I have reverted the usage West Philippine Sea here back to South China Sea in hopes of minimizing confusion among non-Filipino Wikipedia users and among Filipino Wikipedia users who are not aware of all of the above.

In this regard, I don't think that it would be useful to rename the article section headed Pacific Ocean to Philippine Sea. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 21:36, 15 July 2016 (UTC)

Discussion? Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 21:36, 15 July 2016 (UTC)

This re-do of this change caught my eye. As there has been no discussion here to establish consensus about this, I've reverted this change.

I'm wondering, as a seemingly related matter, whether or not the Pacific Ocean section heading ought to be changed to Philippine Sea. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 04:02, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

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