Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio on Monday said the Philippines cannot enter into an agreement with China for joint exploration and exploitation in the West Philippine Sea.
“Joint exploration and exploitation is prohibited in our Constitution, which requires that the Philippines shall have ‘full control and supervision’ in the exploration and exploitation of natural resources,” Carpio said, in a text message.
Carpio’s statement came after expressing approval earlier to the Memorandum of Understanding forged by the two governments during the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping last week.
Carpio said the imminent joint development in areas in the WPS that fall within the exclusive economic zone of the country would violate the Constitution.
Carpio warned that “joint exploration and exploitation” as defined in the law “will diminish our full control and thus violate the Constitution.”
With this, Carpio said that the 60-40 sharing scheme with Beijing in the proposed joint exploration and exploitation of resources in WPS could not be pursued without violating the Constitution.
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Over the weekend, the most senior SC justice expressed support for the MOU, saying it had safeguards to ensure that the sovereignty of the Philippines would not be compromised.
“I think we’re pretty safe. The government has included service contractors, so if we cooperate, if the cooperation with China on oil and gas activities will be through service contractors, we’re very safe,” he said.
Carpio pointed out that a service contract for the joint exploration of gas and oil in contested areas in the South China Sea could actually boost the country’s rights over its exclusive economic zones in the WPS.
“I don’t have any objection with that kind of arrangement because if China comes in through our service contractors, those service contracts expressly recognize that the area falls within Philippine sovereignty or sovereign rights,” he said.
In a forum at the House of Representatives, Carpio said the only way to get China to follow the UN arbitral decision recognizing the Philippines’ rights in the WPS is to educate the Chinese people and to show them that they do not own 85.7 percent of the South China Sea as their government claims.
“The Chinese government will not comply with the ruling until the Chinese people understand that that historical narrative is totally false,” Carpio said,
Carpio said the Philippines has the rightful claim over the WPS as the earliest maps dating back to the Spanish period show.
These maps were the 1734 Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Yslas Filipinas printed by the Jesuit priest Murillo Velarde and the 1688 Coronelli Terrestrial Globe. Both maps submitted as evidence in the arbitral case.
Carpio said the Philippines won the arbitration case and the country must assert its territorial rights over the disputed waters . “The tribunal said China does not own the South China Sea… Now how do you convince the Chinese government to comply with the ruling when the China population believe that they own it?” he said.
“The waters in the high seas belong to all mankind, and the resources in the EEZ belong solely to the adjacent coastal states,” Carpio said.
