MANILA: Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr (pic) on Tuesday (Nov 3) rejected China’s accusation that he had sabotaged joint oil and gas exploration talks with Beijing, saying former President Rodrigo Duterte had already terminated the negotiations in 2022.
Teodoro said the decision to end the talks under a 2018 framework between Manila and Beijing was made over constitutional concerns upon the advice of then-Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.
“The 2018 framework was canceled by no less than former President Duterte in 2022 for being potentially constitutionally problematic upon the advice of then-secretary Teodoro Locsin, not me,” he said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel.
The Chinese Embassy in Manila had accused Teodoro in a Facebook post on Sunday, of sabotaging the agreement and preventing the two countries from achieving results.
“If people like Teodoro had not sabotaged the process, we would have seen tangible results by now,” the embassy claimed.
The embassy accompanied its statement with screenshots of a Manila Times video showing Teodoro warning against joint exploration in the West Philippine Sea and an X post by Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela blaming China for preventing oil and gas exploration at Recto Bank.
In his post on Sunday, Tarriela said China was the reason the Philippines could not explore Recto Bank for oil and natural gas despite rising crude oil prices.
The embassy urged Tarriela to raise the issue with Teodoro.In Tuesday’s interview, the defense chief said he would have supported Duterte’s decision to terminate the negotiations.
“Assuming I were in the same situation, I would go with the decision 100% because it is unconstitutional and there is no basis for a joint exploration talk with China,” Teodoro said.
He also cited the Philippines’ 2016 arbitral victory, which invalidated the legal basis of China’s sweeping claims to historic rights within its nine-dash line in the South China Sea.
The Philippines and China signed a memorandum of understanding on Nov. 20, 2018, establishing a framework for negotiations on possible oil and gas exploration and development.
The memorandum provided for a joint steering committee and working groups to negotiate cooperation arrangements. It did not itself authorize joint exploration activities or create binding legal obligations for either country.
In June 2022, then-Foreign Affairs Secretary Locsin announced that Duterte had ordered the complete termination of negotiations after three years of talks.Locsin said the two countries had reached the limits of what was constitutionally possible without compromising Philippine sovereignty.
The Supreme Court separately declared unconstitutional a 2005 agreement among the Philippines, China and Vietnam for joint marine seismic surveys in the South China Sea.
In its January 2023 ruling, the high court found that the agreement violated constitutional safeguards governing the exploration of the country’s natural resources.
The ruling concerned the 2005 tripartite agreement, not the 2018 bilateral framework.China continues to reject the 2016 arbitral ruling, which invalidated the legal basis of its expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
