Marcos Urged: Ignore China, Just Drill Gas In WPS

Intrusions notwithstanding, President Marcos should by now just ignore China and start exploring gas and oil deposits in the mineral-rich West Philippine Sea, especially since Malampaya is projected to be depleted by 2027, according to a congressman.

“Let’s do it, let’s look for gas and oil in the West Philippine Sea, especially in Recto (Reed) Bank off Palawan, which reportedly holds natural gas deposits that are bigger than those in Malampaya, which by the way is drying up in a few years,” Cagayan de Oro 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said.

In a statement on Monday, Sept. 19, Rodriguez also said the government should not think of what the Chinese would say and should be guided foremost only by the national interest.

“They will always protest even if the exploration areas are not part of their territory. They are the interloper there,” Rodriguez, chairman of the committee on constitutional amendments of the House of Representatives, stressed.

The Mindanao congressman urged the administration, through the Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC), to implement the service contract to search for gas in Recto Bank, which is within the country’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone.

“Recto Bank could potentially replace Malampaya, which supplies a large part of the fuel requirements of power plants energizing Metro Manila and Luzon,” Rodriguez pointed out.

He also noted that the Duterte government had been trying since 2018 to iron out an exploration agreement with China that is compliant with the Philippines’ 1987 Constitution, but he terminated it unilaterally before he stepped down last June 30.

“So let’s do it on our own. They (Beijing) should not dictate what we should do in our own territory. They should not force us to violate our own Constitution,” he said.

If Chinese firms want to participate in oil and gas exploration, they could do so as sub-contractors.

Earlier, PNOC-EC president and chief executive officer Franz Alvarez, a former Palawan congressman, said his agency wants to make progress in some exploration areas in Isabela and Palawan.

However, those areas do not include Recto Bank, where Forum Energy, a company identified with media mogul and business tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan, had been awarded a service contract.

Renegotiate

It is not yet too late even if the Duterte administration had terminated the country’s joint exploration with China over the West Philippine Sea, since the new Marcos administration can still “re-negotiate” it.

“I still think that it is in our best interest to find a live-and-let-live solution with China on utilizing West Philippine Sea resources. As we have seen in Ukraine, military confrontation is a no-winners scenario,” Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said earlier.

“I suggest to PBBM that we renegotiate a way to approximate an inventory of West Philippine Sea energy assets independently, with international observation and audit. That way, we know the kind of resources we are negotiating about without undermining our sovereignty,” he said.

Sovereignty

Meanwhile, fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) has urged President Marcos to reassert the country’s sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea when he addresses the international community during the 77th United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 20, (about 3 a.m. Wednesday in Manila).

In a statement issued on Monday, Pamalakaya said Marcos must specifically raise the issue of China’s incursion in West Philippine Sea in order to gain support from world leaders in pressuring China to comply with the international ruling on the South China Sea.

“By highlighting his administration’s thrust for food security and agricultural productivity, Marcos should likewise raise the troubles we are facing in utilizing our marine and fishery resources in the Chinese-occupied West Philippine Sea,” Pamalakaya national chairman Fernando Hicap said.

Pamalakaya lamented that China’s aggressive usurpation of the West Philippine Sea, accompanied with large-scale poaching activities, resulted in marine degradation and fish stocks exhaustion.

Support

Taiwan hopes the Philippines will support its participation in the United Nations system as world leaders gather for the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

“As close neighbors and maritime nations, Taiwan and the Philippines uphold the values of freedom, democracy and the rules-based international order. Taiwan and the Philippines enjoy longtime cordial people-to-people relations,” Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines Representative Peiyung Hsu said in a statement. – With Elizabeth Marcelo, Pia Lee-Brago