MANILA – The proposed 60-40 sharing in the planned joint oil and gas exploration in the West Philippine Sea is “fair” for the Philippines, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said.
According to Esperon, the proposed joint exploration deal between the two countries was “fair” because Beijing would bear the cost for extraction and “other things.”
“It was acceptable. That simply tells you that we have the upper hand on it. But we don’t talk here about territorial rights. We simply talked about it as a sharing that is just a fair for us and for the other side,” he said in a media briefing at the Malacañang Palace.
“They are spending for it and we are getting more. More than fair, right?” Esperon added.
Esperon said the country’s share may still increase depending on the discussion by the intergovernmental joint steering committee.
“The 60-40 revenue sharing scheme favoring the Philippines is desirable but it is not final,” Esperon said. “It could even go up to 61 or more. Well, 1 percent is always substantial when you talk about such big investments.”
President Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation on oil and gas development in the South China Sea, a part of which Manila refers to as the West Philippine Sea.
Last August, the Philippines and China established an intergovernmental joint steering committee to look into the possible energy cooperation./PN
