Joint oil exploration a pipe dream?

Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano’s exuberant announcement that President Duterte and China’s President Xi Jinping had approved a joint oil exploration venture in the South China Sea could turn out to be a pipe dream and could give the Filipino people false hopes.

After Mr. Duterte’s latest trip to China to attend the Boao Forum for Asia, Cayetano announced that the two leaders had “essentially given the go-signal” to work out a framework for the project, with Xi ostensibly saying that if the Philippines wanted joint exploration, Beijing would be willing “to discuss and find a solution” to the dispute in the South China Sea.

Cayetano said that if this venture would push through, it could benefit the Philippines on a big scale considering that Recto Bank (internationally known as Reed Bank), the area targeted for exploration, has estimated reserves of 5.4 billion barrels of oil and 55.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas based on a study by the US Energy Information Administration.

He further said the planned venture with China could be better than Malampaya — a reference to the natural gas extraction project with Shell in the waters off Palawan where the government is getting 60 percent of the net earnings.

But those who are familiar with China’s brand of diplomacy would be wary of Cayetano’s ecstatic pronouncements. Being a lawyer but obviously a neophyte in diplomacy, the foreign secretary should keep his enthusiasm to himself and not jump to a specific conclusion that could turn out to be illusory and unattainable.

Last March, after his bilateral meeting with Cayetano in Beijing, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the two countries would advance cooperation on offshore oil and gas exploration in the contested areas in a “prudent and steady way,” which is the diplomatic way of saying that the arrangement is a long shot.

This is China’s standard approach in everything that pertains to the South China Sea. For example, in the crafting of the much-ballyhooed Code of Conduct (COC) on the South China Sea, China has consistently said it would agree to the adoption of such an accord with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

China made this commitment in 2012, and in the Asean Summit in Manila in 2017 it signed a framework for the adoption of the COC with a one-year timetable for the final signing of the accord.

Yet up to now the COC is still in limbo, and Singapore, which is chairing Asean this year, has said that it would take years before such an accord could be signed, all because China has engaged in diplomatic maneuverings to delay its completion.

This is exactly what is going to happen with the supposed joint oil exploration project about which Cayetano is euphoric, because of some serious legal concerns.

Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio has been unequivocal in saying that such an arrangement with China would violate our Constitution. Carpio cites the constitutional provision that the state shall protect its marine wealth in its exclusive economic zone and reserve its use and enjoyment
exclusively for Filipino citizens.

Philippine sovereignty over the contested areas has also been recognized by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, in its ruling in July 2016. China must first recognize this sovereignty before any joint undertaking can be done, Carpio said.

But will China agree to this? Absolutely not, for two reasons: 1) it does not recognize the arbitral court ruling; and 2) Xi himself has said that almost the entire South China Sea has been part of China “since
ancient times” and that it is China’s “bounden duty” to uphold its sovereignty in the disputed territory.

That is precisely why China’s foreign minister has called for “prudence” in working on any joint oil exploration. And this is what Cayetano should do: He should exercise prudence and restraint in issuing statements regarding this proposed joint project.

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Alito L. Malinao is a former diplomatic reporter and news editor of the Manila Standard. He now teaches journalism at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila and is the author of the book “Journalism for Filipinos.”