The Supreme Court has declared void and unconstitutional a 2005 agreement that allowed China and Vietnam to conduct a joint exploration with the Philippines for oil resources in areas under the country’s jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea. /PDI
The case stemmed from the petition filed in 2008 by former Bayan Muna Representatives Satur Ocampo, Teodoro Casiño and five other lawmakers, which asked the tribunal to void the tripartite agreement among China National Offshore Oil Corp., Vietnam Oil and Gas Corp. and the Philippine National Oil Co.The JMSU, which covered an exploration area of 142,886 square kilometers in the South China Sea, was signed in March 2005 and expired in July 2008.
The JMSU was illegal, they said, for allowing foreign corporations wholly owned by China and Vietnam to undertake a large-scale exploration of the country’s petroleum resources.The Constitution, they stressed, reserves the EDU of natural resources to Filipino citizens or to corporations or associations where at least 60 percent of the capital is owned by Filipinos.
“That the Parties designated the joint research as a ‘pre- exploration activity’ is of no moment. Such designation does not detract from the fact that the intent and aim of the agreement is to discover petroleum which is tantamount to exploration,” it added.
“Bayan Muna filed this petition as far back as 2008 as China has been using JMSU as cover in its unbridled exploration and incursion in our territory, particularly in the West Philippine Sea,” he said.
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