Cagayan de Oro City 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez (PPAB)

Cagayan de Oro City 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez is up in arms over Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Enrique Manalo's statement the country was open to future joint exploration activities in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) with China.

“Secretary Manalo should not compromise our sovereign rights over the WPS by considering joint oil and gas exploration in said seas with China,” Rodriguez said in a statement Saturday, March 1.

“It is illusory for him, for any government official, and for any Filipino for that matter, to ever think that China will ever recognize our 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) over the WPS under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS),” he added.

The Mindanao lawmaker is a consistent critic of Chinese bullying, aggression and harassment tactics in the WPS.

He said Beijing refuses up to now to recognize the 2016 arbitral ruling that invalidated its expansive claims in the South China Sea. The same ruling recognized the Philippines’ sovereign rights over certain disputed areas, including the Chinese-occupied or controlled Mischief Reef and Scarborough Shoal, and Reed Bank.

SC ruling

“Our Department of Foreign Affairs and Secretary Manalo should entirely drop this idea of joint exploration or any other economic agreement on the WPS with China. They are wishing for the moon if they think Beijing will eventually soften up,” he added.

Rodriguez also reminded Manalo and the DFA that the Supreme Court (SC) last year declared the 2005 joint marine seismic undertaking (JMSU) signed by the government of then-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo with China and Vietnam as unconstitutional.

“The JMSU was just a survey. The [SC] ruled that it violated the Constitution. What more if it were a joint gas and oil exploration? The Philippines and Filipinos should do it alone so we can benefit exclusively from the rich resources inside our exclusive economic zone,” he said.

He reiterated his call for the Department of Energy (DOE) to now allow exploration in Reed Bank, which is believed to hold natural gas reserves bigger than those contractors are extracting from the Malampaya gas project.

“Malampaya, which supplies a large part of the fuel requirements of electricity plants in Luzon, is expected to dry up in a few years. We should now begin exploring the Reed Bank off Palawan, which is inside our 200-mile EEZ,” Rodriguez said.

He says the government is hesitant to give the go-signal for Filipino companies to begin exploration in Reed Bank out of fear such a move would further heighten tensions in the WPS.

“We should not think of how Beijing would react. We should consider only our national interest,” he said.