MALAYA
You just have to give credit to former House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr for never giving up on an idea which he thinks is bright, no matter how disadvantageous it is to the Filipino people.
In the midst of rising tension between the Philippines and China over the former’s series of armed intrusions on West Philippine Sea the past five months, he urged President Aquino Wednesday to revive, the Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking.
The brainchild of De Venecia, the JMSU which was signed in March 2005, opened the exploration of large portion of West Philippine Sea jointly with initially China and later on, with Vietnam. The first phase which ended in 2007 was to find out the amount of oil and other mineral resources in that area. The second phase didn’t push through because of questions of the constitutionality of the tripartite agreement.
The Philippine Constitution provides that”The exploration, development, and utilization of natural resources shall be under the full control and supervision of the State.”
To make his proposal for the revival of the JMSU more palatable, De Venecia said the agreement may be modified to exclude Reed Bank /Recto Bank from the coverage of the agreement.
In this first place, why did he include Reed Bank, which is only 85 nautical miles from Palawan, in the JMSU. That is Philippine territory and is not part of the disputed areas in the Spratlys.
Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez,formerly a Philippine Navy officer and had been closely following the issue on the South China Sea said he is against the revival of the JMSU “because it is disadvantageous to the Philippines.”
Golez said, “Most of the JMSU area (more than 75%) is located within our Exclusive Economic Zone. Per UNCLOS, the Philippines has sovereign rights over the exploitation of natural resources within the EEZ, including marine scientific research. ”
“The JMSU as signed pertains mostly to Philippine EEZ and not the EEZ of the two other signatory countries: China and Vietnam. What is potentially being partitioned for joint development is our EEZ and not the two other signatories’ EEZ. Any JMSU should cover the entire West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) to be equitable to the Philippines,” he said.
Gloria Arroyo, now representing the second district of Pampanga in Congress, added her voice to the noise saying “talks and rhetorics won’t solve the Spratlys issue.”
Now that Arroyo and De Venecia are talking about the Spratlys, they should be compelled to account to the Filipino the compromised Philippine sovereignty on large portion of the country’s undisputed territory.
On March 10, 2008, I wrote a column titled, “A stinking deal” referring to the JMSU. Here’s a portion of the column that are useful background to the current issue:
“How important is the JMSU (Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking) in the Spratly islands to China can be seen by how the Asia-Pacific superpower broke its traditional practice of spacing state visits to accommodate Gloria Arroyo in September 2004.
“Diplomatic sources said the September 2004 visit to China was a “JDV initiative”. The occasion was “The Third International Conference of Asian Political Parties.”
“On the sidelines, but a very important sideline, was the signing of a number of projects including the $400 million North rail project that will connect Manila to Clark and the JMSU.
“The source said DFA was feeling uncomfortable being left out in many of the pre-visit talks, particularly the ones related to the JMSU.
“They advised Arroyo that the ICAPP was too minor an event for her to go to China. ‘It should be a state visit,’ they said thinking that it would not be possible that year because the Malaysian had just made a state visit. Usually a host country limits the number of state visits in a year.
“Arroyo told JDV about DFA’s recommendation. Much to the surprise of the DFA people, JDV was able get an invitation from the Chinese government for Arroyo to make a state visit.
“The source said he had the sense that the Northrail project and the JMSU were tied. So when they brought up the problem that agreement is in violation of the constitutional prohibition of foreigners undertaking exploration of the country’s natural resources, as expressed by then Acting Secretary Merceditas Gutierrez, JDV snapped at them.
“But JDV’s group did something about Gutierrez concern because the word’exploration’ disappeared from the document and the agreement became for a ‘joint marines seismic undertaking’. Very smart.
“A DFA official, who asked not to be named, said the government may be able to get away with the JMSU because it can be argued that no exploration has taken place but if the survey’s results are positive, that would really be a problem. The Philippines has included some 284,000 square kilometers of undisputed Philippine territory in the agreement area and allowing China and Vietnam to explore the country’s natural resources is clearly a violation of the Constitution.
“At least six of the eight islands occupied by the Philippine military in the South China are included in the JMSU.
“JDV and Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo wax ecstatic about the JMSU saying ‘it manifests responsible diplomacy to ease tension and promote confidence-building in a region where, as noted in the article, the issue of sovereignty of the Spratly Islands remains a potential ‘flashpoint.’
“That applies to the disputed area. But how does the government justify the inclusion of 284,000 square kilometers of Philippine territory that are not disputed?
“In the agreement, ‘ll the data and information acquired fort he fulfillment of the Seismic work…and their interpretation shall be jointly owned by the Parties. In the event any Party wishes to sell or disclose the above-mentioned data and information after the expiration of the confidentiality term, prior written consent therefore shall be obtained from the other Party.’
“China and Vietnam become co-owners of data and information gathered from our own territory! This is not simply a commercial transaction as played down by Malacañang. These are matters involving patrimony and sovereignty. Of exercising supreme dominion over that have been handed to us by our forefathers.
“Retired Commodore Rex Robles is being diplomatic when he said,’ it has the flavor of treason.’ It stinks.”
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