MANILA, Philippines -- The House of Representatives is willing to adopt Malacañang?s position on the controversial baseline bill so long as there is an assurance that the country will not lose its claim on the disputed Spratlys, Speaker Prospero Nograles said on Tuesday.

?The House may seriously consider Malacañang's proposal but we want to make sure that it will not have any repercussion on our claims," Nograles said in a statement.

Malacañang is pushing for a review of House Bill 3216 defining the country?s territory to include the Kalayaan Group of Islands and the Scarborough Shoal in the South China.

In a letter to the Speaker over the weekend, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita asked the House to reconsider the bill and treat the Spratlys as a ?regime of islands? instead of enclosing it within the country?s baselines.

And while he respects the position of the Palace, Nograles also raised the possibility that the executive might be wrong on this issue.

"Malacañang can be right but it can also be wrong. We have to be very careful about this," he said.

But Nograles said he himself would support the Palace?s stand on the bill ?provided it could guarantee that this would not endanger the country's legal claim on the disputed areas in the South China Sea.?

Nograles wants to find out though if other claimants -- China, Vietnam, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan -- do not have legislated territorial lines similarly putting enclosures in the disputed areas.

He also wants to know if the other claimants have submitted such documents to the United Nations.

"This baseline bill, once it becomes a law will be a permanent document that will be submitted to the UN and we don't want to weaken our claim on these territories based on technicality,? he said.

"Once we submit our baseline to the UN, it becomes a permanent record so we really have to balance this issue very carefully,? he pointed out.

Congress is under pressure to pass the bill, which has been pending for approval on third and final reading in the House, to meet the May 2009 deadline provided for under the United Nations Conventions on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS).

Nograles has advised Cebu Representative Antonio Cuenco, chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, to carefully study the bill and look at the merits of the executive?s position.

Nograles said the committee would be in the best position to make a stand on this issue because it has conducted exhaustive hearings and studies which might go for or against the position of Malacañang.