MANILA – Legislators, nationalists and other experts in the Philippines on Thursday questioned a proposed oil exploration deal with China in the disputed and mineral-rich South China Sea, which they warned would send mixed messages to a territorial foe.
Talks of a possible oil exploration deal resurfaced last month after both countries convened the 11th Bilateral Consultation Mechanism on the South China Sea, which is claimed nearly wholly by Beijing and contested in parts by several Southeast Asian nations.
The Philippines has been leading the charge on the issue after it won a 2016 international arbitration ruling that invalidated China’s vast claims in the South China Sea.
At the conclusion of talks last month, both sides acknowledged the importance of energy cooperation after the US and Israeli-led war on Iran choked oil supplies to much of the world.
The Philippines has been hit especially hard, forcing President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to declare a national energy emergency last month and seek alternative oil sources to augment a rapidly declining buffer stock. Prices of basic commodities and pump prices have shot up as a result.
While the Philippines stuck to its “principled position” on the South China Sea, it acknowledged openness to certain practical measures consistent with its laws. This includes “initial exchanges on potential oil and gas cooperation,” a joint statement said, without going into specifics.
The hostilities in the Middle East have choked oil supply and disrupted supply chains around the world, and may have actually provided an “impetus” for both countries to move forward on joint oil exploration, Marcos said separately.
“That’s something we’ve been talking about for a great deal, but territorial disputes are getting in the way of that,” Marcos told Bloomberg in an interview.
But Chel Diokno, an opposition member of the House of Representatives, questioned the seemingly secretive negotiations, which he said breed suspicion.
“Transparency should be a governing principle in our foreign and energy policies. Any agreement involving our natural resources is a public matter,” he told a news conference marking the country’s Day of Valor which honors World War II veterans.
“The Filipino people have the right to know the terms, conditions and concessions being negotiated with China,” Diokno said.
He said he would spearhead calls in the House committee overseeing developments in the sea region to “exercise oversight” of the oil negotiations to ensure transparency and verify that they do not contravene the Constitution.
Another House member, Perci Cendana, argued that any negotiations with China over oil would amount to rewarding its “bad behavior” – alluding to increasing harassment by the China Coast Guard (CCG) against their Filipino counterparts patrolling the West Philippine Sea, the parts of the South China Sea within Manila’s exclusive economic zone.
“We are sending the wrong message and encouraging more powerful countries to escalate disputes to extract concessions. Over time, this erodes the rules-based order in the region,” Cendana said.
“Instead of demanding compliance with international law, we are adjusting to China’s violations. Real cooperation must be based on respect for the law, not submission to aggression,” he said.
“We should pursue energy security in ways that do not validate coercion and undermine our sovereignty. We cannot reward bad behavior and expect good outcomes. What we tolerate today, we will surely invite tomorrow,” Cendana said.
Stratbase Institute, a Manila-based independent think tank that closely follows the dispute, cautioned earlier this week against a potential oil deal, warning that Beijing has repeatedly demonstrated it is neither “a reliable partner nor a responsible actor.”
It called on Manila to reject the deal outright, saying that Beijing has always negotiated on its own terms and has consistently “acted in bad faith” on the South China Sea.
“A state that persistently disregards international law and violates Philippine sovereign
rights cannot be expected to honor any agreement. Entering into such a partnership would expose the country to unnecessary risk,” Stratbase warned in a statement.
Instead, it called on the government to fully implement Marcos’ Executive Order No. 111, which adopted Philippine names for 131 features of the Kalayaan Group of Islands in Palawan province, as an exercise of the country’s sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea.
The Kalayaan Group is part of the contested Spratly Islands chain. It includes Pag-asa Island, a small feature home to about 400 inhabitants that serves as the local seat of government and is constantly monitored by China.
Rather than join with a hostile country, Stratbase urged the Philippines to develop its own energy resources through partnerships with like-minded states, stressing that energy security should never come “at the expense of sovereignty.”
During a visit to China in 2023, Marcos Jr. and his counterpart, Xi Jinping, agreed to keep lines of communication open regarding a possible joint exploration deal.
But it remains to be seen how any deal could be structured after the Philippine Supreme Court voided a 2005 exploration agreement Manila entered into with China and Vietnam, because it involved wholly foreign-owned companies.
Jason Gutierrez was head of Philippine news at BenarNews, an online news service affiliated with Radio Free Asia (RFA), a Washington-based news organization that covered many under-reported countries in the region. A veteran foreign correspondent, he has also worked with The New York Times and Agence France-Presse (AFP).