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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

VP, Carpio draw flak over Duterte’s oil deal remark

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Malacañang on Sunday chided Vice President Leni Robredo and Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio for “finding fault” in President Rodrigo Duterte’s remarks about venturing into a joint oil exploration with Beijing amid the dispute in the South China Sea.

Robredo on Friday described as “profoundly disappointing and extremely irresponsible” Duterte’s remark that he would “ignore” the 2016 Hague ruling favoring the Philippines in the dispute to give way to the oil and gas exploration deal with China under a 60-40 sharing agreement.

Carpio said President Duterte had no authority to “set aside” Manila’s legal victory in the Hague-based court to push through with the exploration.

In separate statements issued last week, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said the President deemed it wise and prudent to explore and develop natural resources even as the government continued to lobby for the resolution of the conflict in the disputed seas.

Robredo and Carpio had developed a penchant for finding fault in every word that the President says, Panelo said.

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He said Robredo should “rely more on her instinct as a lawyer and mother protective of those she is constitutionally tasked to shepherd.”

She should think about changing her advisers and tapping those knowledgeable about geopolitics and diplomacy.

Panelo said the government would not undermine the country’s sovereign claims in the West Philippine Sea.

“We find it amusing if not exasperating why some quarters keep on insisting at some hairsplitting alternate interpretations of the President’s foreign policy relative to the issue, Panelo said.

Duterte had previously said that Chinese leader Xi Jinping had offered the Philippines a controlling stake in the proceeds of a joint venture if the country would set aside the 2016 ruling.

Xi’s offer comes at a time when the country’s gas resources in the Malampaya fields are set to run out by 2024.

“It would certainly be the height of folly and naivet if the Philippines were to ignore areas of investment that our country badly needs to fuel our rapidly expanding growth, Panelo said.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in 2016 that the Philippines had legal rights to exploit gas deposits that China also claims in the Reed Bank, about 85 miles off the Philippine coast.

The ruling also affirmed Manila’s sovereign rights over its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone and rejected Beijing’s mythical and expansive claims in the South China Sea.    

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