Philippines, China to proceed with joint oil exploration talks despite court ruling

The Philippines and China will hold “preparatory talks” in May on joint oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea, Manila said Tuesday, amid a territorial dispute and despite the Philippine Supreme Court ruling such activities unconstitutional.

Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Enrique Manalo said the government would issue updates on the joint plan, after Sen. Francis Tolentino questioned the energy cooperation plan with China announced in January.

“In light of the joint statement issued during the president’s state visit to Beijing last Jan. 5, on the agreement ‘to resume discussions on oil and gas development at an early date’ the Philippines and China will meet for preparatory talks in Beijing sometime in May,” the DFA said in a statement. “The meeting will discuss parameters and terms of reference.” 

Back in January, both sides had said that the bitter, ongoing territorial dispute in the South China Sea was not the sum total of bilateral relations. 

On Sunday, Tolentino, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, cautioned against the plan, noting that an international arbitration tribunal in 2016 had ruled in favor of Manila over Beijing’s expansive claims in the mineral-rich sea region.

Additionally, the Philippine Supreme Court, in a decision in January, declared that a 2005 agreement among the Philippines, China and Vietnam – another party in the South China Sea dispute – was unconstitutional because it allowed foreign corporations to prospect for natural resources belonging to the Filipino people without proper safeguards. 

“I believe that in the negotiations with the People’s Republic of China, the DFA must consider the decision of the Supreme Court and take into consideration what is embodied in our Constitution, that we have the right in our exclusive economic zone,” Tolentino told a Philippine broadcaster.

He said that any new agreement between the Philippines and China should comply with the provisions enshrined under the country’s charter, noting that exploitation of natural resources are exclusively given only to Filipinos.

“So they should keep in mind the protection of our exclusive economic zone – the 200 nautical miles from the baseline – and the decision of the Supreme Court,” he said.

Tolentino said he was hesitant about the new plans, considering that China has not stopped harassment by the China Coast Guard against the Philippine Coast Guard patrolling the nation’s coastline.

“There may be more [Chinese ships] because they can say they now have the right to drill, to conduct scientific marine research, that is why the Department of Foreign Affairs must proceed with caution, lest they increase their presence there,” Tolentino warned.

Under former President Rodrigo Duterte, Manila and Beijing in 2018 signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation on Oil and Gas Development.

Last June, Duterte terminated the talks after both sides failed to resolve the issue of sovereignty over Reed Bank, the proposed exploration site, because of Beijing’s claims that overlap with Manila’s in the South China Sea.

China claims nearly all of the South China Sea on historical grounds, including waters within the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Taiwan.

In June, then-Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said negotiations with Beijing had ended as Manila “got as far as it is constitutionally possible to go.”

“We had both tried to go as far as we could – without renouncing China’s aspiration on his part; and constitutional limitations on my part,” Locsin said at the time.

‘Our country won’t benefit’

Fernando Hicap, who heads the fishermen’s group Pamalakaya, said on Tuesday the Supreme Court ruling should serve as jurisprudence to any effort at reviving exploration at sea.

“We maintain that our country won’t benefit from a joint venture with a country that blatantly tramples on our sovereign and territorial rights,” he said.

“The Filipino fishers are witnesses to Chinese massive poaching, reclamation and other unlawful acts in the West Philippine Sea,” he said, using the Philippine term for the waters within its South China Sea exclusive economic zone.

Hicap called on Marcos to be firm in the face of Chinese aggression instead of entertaining the idea of joint exploration.

“For all we know, China may already be conducting its own survey in areas for potential energy and mineral resources that would lead to actual exploration activities,” Hicap told reporters.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a BenarNews request for comment.