TOKYO, Japan—The Philippines remains in a "deadlock" in resolving the energy exploration issues in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), President Marcos said.

Marcos emphasized the need to resolve the increasing tensions in the WPS in order for the country to start new energy exploration projects before the Malampaya gas field starts to run out of supply.

“We are still at a deadlock right now. It is in a conflict area. So, that’s another thing that we have to try and resolve to see what role any countries play,” Marcos said in an interview with Japanese media when asked if the exploration talks would push through even without the participation of China.

He, however, stressed that the area is still within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

“It’s still of course the position of the Philippines that this is not in a conflict area. This is very clearly within our EEZ… within our baselines, within the maritime territory (of) the Philippines,” he said.

The Philippines has been in negotiations on oil and gas exploration in the WPS but there has been very little progress with regard to the talks.

In 2022, then president Rodrigo Duterte terminated the oil and gas discussions with China in the WPS, saying the country's objective to develop oil and gas resources have not been achieved despite both sides trying to "go as far as we could.

Upon assuming the presidency in 2022, Marcos said the Philippines would continue to find other ways to pursue the oil exploration, and possibly veering away from government-to-government discussions.

He then cited the long-standing maritime dispute and constitutional problems as the "roadblock" of the negotiations between China and Philippines for a joint oil exploration during the term of former Duterte.

In January 2023, Marcos and Chinese President Xi Jinping both signified willingness to resume the discussion on the oil and gas exploration in the WPS.

During the interview on Saturday, the Chief Executive noted the supply of liquified natural gas (LNG) is becoming more and more important to the Philippines, particularly as it transitions to renewable energy.

“We are seeing LNG as being the transition between purely fossil fuel, coal, to the more bigger mix of renewables,” Marcos said.

“But this — the move to renewables, I think we are all discovering is not as easy as we had hoped and so we need a transition period to give ourselves time to bring the infrastructure and to allow the technologies to develop," he said.”

He noted that some of the new technologies are still being piloted so the country have to wait for them to be rolled out on a commercial basis and that will take a little time for the country’s transition to clean energy.

The Philippines has to secure sufficient fuel supply especially with all the plans for development that the administration has for growth of the economy, he added.

“The supply of reliable, affordable power is always going to be critical and it has been one of the problems that the Philippines has faced, are…. power and even the lack of supply,” the President said.

“So, that is what we — that is what we’ll be working on. So, that’s why LNG has become more and more important and so it’s imperative for the Philippines to find a way to move the process forward so as to be able to assure ourselves of that transition — the fuel supply during that transition period, he stated.”