Albay Rep. Joey Salceda on Sunday urged incoming President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to renegotiate terms of the West Philippine Sea (WPS) joint-development deal with China.
Meanwhile, Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel, chairperson of the House strategic intelligence committee, called for the lifting of the suspension of gas and oil drilling operations at the Recto Bank in the WPS following Manila’s withdrawal from the talks with Beijing on the matter.
The country must recalibrate the terms of its joint development efforts with China over the West Philippine Sea assets, instead of requiring an independent, “internationally observed” exploration of possible oil and gas reserves first before a joint development agreement is carried out, Salceda said.
He was reacting to the Duterte administration’s recent withdrawal from talks with China on a joint energy project.
“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-winner scenario. And, this is a question of Philippine independent interest, so we should not depend on our Western partners either,” Salceda said.
“Instead, I strongly suggest to President Bongbong Marcos that we renegotiate a way to approximate an inventory of the 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 added.
Such effort is consistent with the China approach “I have been advocating: let’s know the benefits first, before we decide on what military, economic, diplomatic, or political costs we are willing to incur over the WPS,” Salceda said.
“At the same time, independent exploration before joint development will allow us to make a rational, nationally self-interested decision about what kind of joint development agreement we will undertake,” he said, adding “China will have to pay up.”
The government “must make China understand that if they want us on friendlier terms, especially on resource development, they have to pay up,” he stressed.
“China is not a major Philippine investor. The island state of Singapore trumps China on that front by several multiples. It is not a major Philippine lender, on the scale of say, Japan. It is our second largest export market, but the United States still beats them there.
So, if they want our favor, they have to pay up. Invest more in the country. Send us more tourists. Give us cheaper loans,” Salceda said.
“Otherwise, what it will look like is a military superior country just trying to coerce another neighbor,” he added.
According to Salceda, the country’s geopolitical best friend is still Japan, “which has shown time and again that its interests align with ours. I would explore the possibility of the Philippines going on its own using Japanese capital, technology, and research as leverage in our talks with China over oil in WPS. Besides, it is in Japan’s interest to have a close friend be oil-producing.”
“My point is, we want to be friends with China. We want more trade and more joint efforts with China. But China has to earn our trust and our favor. Or we will turn to other friends,” he stressed.
“The DOE (Department of Energy) put off the drilling activities in deference to the negotiations. Now that the talks have been terminated, the department should withdraw its suspension order,” Pimentel said in a statement on Sunday.
“This way, the private parties contracted by the Philippine government to develop the offshore Sampaguita gas discovery in Recto Bank can proceed with their drilling activities,” Pimentel said.
The DOE on April 6 ordered the private operators of Service Contract (SC) 72 and SC 75 to put on hold their exploration activities in the West Philippine Sea in deference to the country’s talks with China on possible cooperation arrangements and the maritime areas to which they would apply.
Prior to the suspension order, the DOE gave the operator of SC 72, Forum Energy Ltd., until October 16 this year to drill its two commitment wells in Sampaguita at a cost of $100 million (P5.4 billion).
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. announced on Thursday that talks for the planned joint exploration between Manila and Beijing in the WPS have been “completely terminated” upon instruction of President Duterte.
“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,” Locsin said in his speech during the 124th founding anniversary celebration of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Sampaguita was estimated to contain 3.5 to 4.6 trillion cubic feet of gas, which is comparable to if not larger than Malampaya’s 3.4 tcf of gas reserves when the latter was first discovered by Shell Philippines Exploration B.V. in 1992.
Sampaguita is located 250 kilometers southwest of Malampaya, which has been supplying 20 percent of Luzon’s electricity demand for more than two decades.
Pimentel earlier warned that Malampaya might be depleted by 2027, and without fresh gas from Sampaguita, Luzon could face power shortages in the years ahead.