THE Philippines, in another apparent show of standing up to China’s perceived bullying over ownership of disputed islands in the South China Sea on Wednesday announced that it would grant more permits to private firms to search for oil and natural gas there.
The announcement coincided with Beijing reiterating also on Wednesday that it has “indisputable sovereignty” over the contested islands in reaction to the United States pledging this week to help Manila assert its claims in the area.
A total of 15 exploration contracts would be offered today for mostly offshore prospects off the western island of Palawan, the Philippine’s Energy department said in a statement.
The department did not give details beyond saying that the blocks would include East Palawan—an undersea section of the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea)—as well as Northwest Palawan and the Sulu Sea basins.
“The contracting round is expected to attract investments in oil and gas exploration activities, which will contribute to the realization of the country’s energy self-sufficiency level target of 60 percent,” it said.
“Independent and large-scale international exploration companies . . . have already expressed their interest to tender their bid in the various blocks,” the statement added.
In stamping “sovereignty” over the disputed islands, a spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Yang Yi, also repeated Beijing’s position that safeguarding the independence of the area’s potentially resource-rich islands and islets was a “common responsibility” for Beijing and Taipei.
‘Indisputable’ sovereignty
“China has indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and their surrounding waters,” Yang told reporters, according to an official transcript.
China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Taiwan have overlapping claims to parts of the South China Sea, whose shipping lanes are vital for global trade.
Vietnam as well as the Philippines in recent months accused China of taking increasingly aggressive actions in staking its claim to the contested waters and its archipelagos.
In response, China has insisted it wants to resolve the territorial dispute peacefully but remained firm in its claims to most of the South China Sea, even waters within the Philippines’ economic exclusion zone.
The United States and the Philippines on Tuesday launched joint naval exercises in Philippine waters close to the much-coveted South China Sea.
The commander of the US 7th Fleet, Vice Admiral Scott Van Buskirk, described America and the Philippines as “allies” and said “that is the strongest and most enduring commitment the two nations can make.”
“Our alliance is underpinned by a deep and abiding US interest in the freedom and security of the Republic of the Philippines,” he said.
In Manila, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) also on Wednesday welcomed the unanimous approval by the United States Senate of a resolution deploring China’s actions in the South China Sea.
The resolution “supports the Philippine government’s proposal for the multilateral and peaceful resolution of competing claims in the disputed areas of the West Philippine Sea,” Eduardo Malaya, Foreign Affairs department spokesman, said in a text message to reporters.
He added that it is “imperative” for concerned parties “to take concrete steps to ease tensions in the area through dialogue and diplomacy.”
Beijing is adamant that it would not agree on any third-party negotiator, such as the United States, saying that the superpower’s meddling jeopardizes peaceful resolution.
The Philippines has also been calling for all claimant-countries to follow provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) and the 2002 Declaration on the Code of Conduct (DOC) between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
Asean groups the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
In the United States, leaders of the four million-strong ethnic Filipino community on Tuesday denounced China’s “bullying tactics” against the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea that they said threatened regional security in Southeast Asia.
Filipino-American businesswoman Loida Nicholas Lewis of New York City said that their group, US Pinoys for Good Governance, is preparing simultaneous protest actions to draw international attention to Beijing’s aggressive posture, including its scheduled oil drilling activities next month in offshore territory belonging to the Philippines.
Lewis added that they would picket in front of the embassy of the Peoples Republic of China in Washington, D.C., and its consular offices in New York, San Francisco and Chicago.
Under UNCLOS, she said, a nation owned the oil, mineral and other resources within a two-hundred-mile radius from its base.
“The public demonstrations on July 8 seek to expose China’s abrogation of its pledge to (Asean) to resolve sovereignty disputes peacefully through negotiations,” added Lewis, also the chairman emeritus of the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations (NaFFAA).
She added that Beijing’s March 2010 unilateral declaration of the South China Sea as a “core national interest” was similar to its claims to Tibet and Taiwan—and therefore “non-negotiable.”
Lewis said that their planned protest actions would be peaceful and intended solely to highlight prevailing tensions in the Spratlys, which she added, could lead to armed conflict.
The Spratly Islands are among those being claimed by Manila.
“We call on global Filipinos and Philippine organizations throughout the world to stand up to the [Chinese] bully and protest its impending invasion of the Philippines by demonstrating in front of consular offices of China throughout the world,” Lewis said.
Oil rig
In San Francisco, Filipino-American community leader Rodel Rodis warned that Beijing’s planned installation of its most advanced oil rig in the West Philippine Sea next month could exacerbate the already tense atmosphere in the Spratlys.
He cited a Xinhua report that the China National Offshore Oil Corp. plans to invest 200 billion yuan ($30 billion) and drill 800 deepwater wells, which they expect to have an output of an equivalent 500 million barrels of oil by the year 2020.
Rodis cited Philippine military reports that an undetermined number of structures were recently constructed by China in the vicinity of Philippine-claimed Iroguois Reef-Amy Douglas Bank near Palawan.
The site, a DFA statement said, is located southwest of Recto or Reed Bank and east of Patag or Flat Island “within the Philippines’ 200 nautical miles Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).”
“There are more than four million Filipinos in the US who can be mobilized to defend the sovereignty of the Philippines by exposing China’s aggressive acts in the Spratlys. What is also at stake is the Philippines’- ownership of potentially trillions of dollars in revenue from its oil and natural gas resources,” Rodis said.
He and Lewis feared that China, with 2.17 million soldiers under its command—larger than the combined military personnel of all the Asean countries—appeared determined to begin its billion-dollar oil rig construction activity this July approximately 125 miles from Palawan within the Philippines’ (EEZ.
They said that such move was unacceptable and could aggravate tension in the Spratly Islands.
AFP, XINHUA and Jun Medina with report from Bernice Camille V. Bauzon
