China to benefit from ‘cha-cha’

By Herbert Vego

IN a past column, this writer wondered who could have “incentivized” 301 members of our House of Representatives – against only seven oppositionists — to pass a resolution to amend the Constitution through a constitutional convention (con-con). Although I suspected they could benefit from Chinese retirees buying land in the Philippines – especially one of them engaged in buy-and-sell of real estate — I refrained from remarking that foreign money could have engendered such an “incentive” behind their alibi of “economic reforms”.

Thank God, the majority of the 24-member Senate does not share the same sentiment.  And the minority of five who are for charter change would rather do it another way — via constituent assembly (con-ass).

But what if the required three-fourths of both chambers of Congress eventually decide to unite behind only one mode?

The hand of China looms in the horizon with the published decision of the Department of Foreign Affairs to resume talks with Beijing on joint oil and gas exploration within our exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, which the present Constitution prohibits.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, however, has all the reasons not to fall for the “joint development” over maintaining Philippine sovereignty.

After all, the Supreme Court has decided that a proposed trilateral joint exploration agreement among the Philippines, China and Vietnam – among the parties in the South China Sea dispute – is unconstitutional because “foreign corporations are not allowed to participate in the exploration of the country’s natural resources”.

One recalls that in 2018, under then-President Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines and China signed a document on “Cooperation on Oil and Gas Development” but it did not push through after both sides failed to resolve the issue of sovereignty over Reed Bank in the Spratlys.

Therefore, it is only through a revision of the Philippine Constitution that China could exploit some of our explorable natural resources. Data from the Department of Energy (DOE) showed an estimated 6,203 million barrels of total oil resources and 12,158 billion cubic feet of total gas still lurking in the West Philippine.

We see the China hand behind the recent news that Malaysia appears receptive to a joint oil exploration with China. Why not? This was the agenda discussed during Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s visit to Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Mar 31, 2023.

Oh, well, hadn’t President Marcos made an earlier courtesy call to Xi in January, only to come home with a statement that a charter change is not among his priorities?

As in the Philippines, even Malaysian experts on the South China Sea see no smooth sailing in China’s bilateral discussions with individual members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), using its superior economic weight to “divide and conquer”.

All ASEAN members – Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Brunei, Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines, Cambodia, Singapore and Malaysia — have criticized China for impeding and harassing their oil and gas activities in areas within their exclusive economic zones based on China’s “historic rights” over almost 90% of the South China Sea within her imaginary “nine-dash line” which the Arbitral Tribunal of the UN had already declared illegal.

To quote political analyst Collins Chong Yew Keat of the University of Malaysia, “It must not be based on a bilateral basis, as Beijing will exercise its burgeoning leverage and cards to dictate more favorable terms.”

To the credit of Vietnam, it has always maintained that any joint exploration should be guided by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS); and that China-led joint projects in the South China Sea could become “dangerous precedents” if pursued.

Vietnam has demonstrated, not only in words but in deeds, that it would not be bullied by China. For example, last April 2, one of its patrol boats chased away a bigger coast guard ship of China navigating within Vietnamese waters.

The Chinese ship, it turned out, was the same one which had pointed a laser beam at the crew of a Philippine Coast Guard ship, causing temporary blindness to them.

We have been bullied many times, only to react with more than 200 diplomatic protests that have fallen on deaf ears.

Shame, shame on our solons for pretending to be upscaling our economy through a “cha-cha” that could eventually make our nation a mere “province of China” as former President Rodrigo Duterte had wished in a speech.

The ball is now in our court.  Only a noisy people’s indignance against charter change would force our legislators to change stand, as they did during the administrations of Presidents Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

-oOo-

MORE POWER ADVISORY

TODAY (April 10) having been declared a holiday because the “Araw ng Kagitingan ” (April 9) fell on a Sunday, MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) will remain closed, to reopen tomorrow (Tuesday, April 11).

The “Araw ng Kagitingan” commemorates the day when Filipino and American forces maintained temporary resistance in the war against the Japanese in Bataan until April 9, 1942.

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