China pursues oil exploration talks

(UPDATE) CHINA looks forward to continuing talks with the Philippine government under the administration of President-elect Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on the joint oil and gas exploration in the West Philippine Sea, a Foreign Ministry official said.

In a press conference in Beijing on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said, "China stands ready to work in concert with the new Philippine government to advance negotiations on joint development and strive to take early substantive steps so as to deliver tangible benefits to both countries and peoples."

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman made the remark on the same day that Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said the Philippines-China discussion for a joint oil exploration in the West Philippine Sea has been terminated on President Rodrigo Duterte's order.

In his speech during the Department of Foreign Affairs' Foundation Day Locsin said, "The President had spoken. I carried out his instructions to the letter: oil and gas discussions are terminated completely. Nothing is pending; everything is over."

He said that both sides tried to negotiate for three years and got as far as what was constitutionally possible. However, another step forward would have risked a "constitutional crisis."

"That explains the sudden pull-back on my part which unraveled three years of sincere hard work on the part of Wang Yi and me. 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. I shut down the shop completely," Locsin added.

But Wang cited a memorandum of understanding which China and the Philippines signed in November 2018 to embark on negotiations "and made important progress within this framework."

The Chinese official hinted that the oil and gas discussion would continue under the incoming Marcos administration unless the pact is revoked.

Next administration's responsibility

Locsin said it now falls on the next administration's shoulders to protect the Philippine sovereignty "all the way to the wire."

"The irreducible template of what is constitutionally possible is there in black and white. Surrender of any portion of Philippine sovereignty is not an option," he said.

President-elect Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. had said he would assert the Philippines' rights over the West Philippine Sea and talk to China "consistently with a firm voice" about the two countries' territorial dispute in the area.

"Our sovereignty is sacred and we will not compromise it in any way," Marcos had told reporters. "We will not allow a single square millimeter of our maritime coastal...rights to be trampled upon."

Marcos had also said he would use the 2016 arbitral ruling to assert the Philippines' territorial rights.

Marcos added that he will engage not only China but the Philippines' Southeast Asian neighbors in reaching a peaceful settlement of maritime disputes.

China has ignored the arbitral ruling, while the Philippines under Duterte maintained its position to resolve the sea disputes through diplomatic negotiation.

The Philippines claims parts of the South China Sea within its exclusive economic zone and calls it the West Philippine Sea.

After an extensive exploration program, the Philippines finds the Nido oil field off the coast of Palawan Island, marking the first oil discovery in the Northwest Palawan Basin.

The discovery comes four years after the government passed the Oil Exploration and Development Act of 1972, which provides the legal basis for exploring and developing petroleum resources as Manila pushes for energy independence.

Philippine Cities Service Inc., the country's first oil company, began drilling a well in the Nido oil field and launched commercial production in 1979, yielding 8.8 million barrels that year.

In 2012, the International Monetary Fund noted that the Philippines' petroleum industry may have "significant potential" in the South China Sea, which is adjacent to the Northwest Palawan Basin.

Source: TheManila Times