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High court asked to junk Spratlys exploration deal

By Benjamin B. Pulta and Angie M. Rosales

05/22/2008

Opposition and militant lawmakers in the House of Representatives have questioned before the Supreme Court the validity of the controversial Tripartite Agreement for Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JSMU) among the Philippines, China and Vietnam for the exploration and development of possible oil deposit rich areas in Philippine waters.

The agreement was signed three years ago between the Philippine National Oil Corp., China National Offshore Oil Corp. and PetroVietnam to jointly conduct seismic data research in the area.

As early as 1956, international authorities have recognized that the Spratlys belong to the Philippines.

The late strongman Ferdinand Marcos annexed 57 Spratly Islands to the province of Palawan in 1971.

Critics have said the JSMU will also negatively impact on the country’s 1976 discovery of oil off the coast of Palawan.

In their 55-page petition, Bayan Muna Representatives Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño; the late Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran; Gabriela Women’s Representatives Liza Maza and Luzviminda Ilagan; Representatives Lorenzo Tañada III (Quezon) and Teofisto Guingona III (Bukidnon) sought a certiorari and prohibition against the agreement which they claim is in violation of the Constitution.

“The Tripartite Agreement itself, its execution and its continued implementation are

unconstitutional as they allow the large-scale exploration of petroleum and other mineral oils by corporations wholly owned by foreign states in clear violation of Article 12, Section of the Constitution,” the petitioners said.

The suit pointed out that Section 2, Article 12 of the Constitution states that “all lands of the public domain, waters, minerals, coal, petroleum, and other mineral oils, all forces of potential energy, fisheries, forests or timber, wildlife, flora and fauna, and other natural resources are owned by the State. With the exception of agricultural lands, all other natural resources shall not be alienated.

The same provision also says, “The exploration, development, and utilization of natural resources shall be under the full control and supervision of the State. The State may directly undertake such activities, or it may enter into co-production, joint venture, or production-sharing agreements with Filipino citizens, or corporations or associations at least 60 per centum of whose capital is owned by such citizens.”

The petitioners stressed that those involved in the JMSU are mostly foreign entities and that its continued implementation “smacks of downright constitutional mockery.”

The lawmakers also claimed that the JMSU is not pre-exploratory but would require exploratory activities which include seismic work, survey or mapping.

They noted that with the agreement, the country “sells out” to the other parties the following:

The country’s potential petroleum resource within the agreement area; the country’s clear and undisputed territories, archipelagic waters, territorial sea and exclusive economic zone covered by and within the agreement area; the Philippines’ claimed and occupied land territories, archipelagic waters, territorial sea and exclusive economic zone covered by and within the agreement area; and the country’s claimed land territories, archipelagic waters, territorial sea and exclusive economic zone cover

Respondents in the representatives’ petition were President Arroyo, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, the secretary of Department of Foreign Affairs, secretary of the Department of Energy, Philippine National Oil Co. and Philippine National Oil Company Exploration Corp.

Meanwhile, the proposed baseline bill which seeks to define the country’s territorial zones was effectively put at the backburner after Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago also yesterday formally moved to expedite instead the creation of a body that will resolve first other equally sensitive issues confronting the Philippines’ boundaries vis-à-vis to international laws and pending sovereignty claims.

Santiago, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, submitted before the plenary the approval of the Joint Resolution Creating the Congressional Commission on National Territory.

“Even as I have tried to indicate the general outline of the territorial problems confronting us, certainly, I am far from giving you a complete picture. But I trust this will suffice to show the complexity and depth of our dilemmas which at once will strike us as requiring holistic perspective.

“Above all, it is out of sense of urgency that I humbly request your approval of this Joint Resolution (No. 12),” she said on the floor in delivering her sponsorship speech.

The 1982 United Nations Convention of the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) requires the Philippines to submit before May 13, 2009, its claim for an extended continental shelf (ECS)

“The apparent prevailing thought is that we should make a submission and unfortunately, time is running out on us. Your foreign relations committee is of the view that so far the approaches taken in dealing with territorial problems are piecemeal and crisis-oriented, apparently on the assumption that national territory is fragmented into separate issues, each to be resolved by disconnected attempts and thus resulting in half-way and makeshift solutions. We are a nation entire by itself and metaphorically, we cannot approach our territorial problems island by island,” she said.

Among the so-called unresolved issues over limits of the country’s continental shelf and its exclusive economic zone is the disputed Kalayaan Island Group and the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.

In the proposed commission, the senator said it shall be composed of 10 members of equal representation from both the Senate and the House of Representatives which shall be tasked to submit a scholarly background paper from experts in international law, geology, hydrography and geophysics, among others, as an authoritative reference for use in public hearings and plenary debates on the existing bills.