MALACAÑANG on Monday countered communist leader Jose Maria Sison’s claim that the memorandum of understanding on oil and gas development between the Philippines and China was a “clear act of treason” on the part of President Rodrigo Duterte and his administration.
“Maybe he has not read the agreement signed. It’s just an agreement to agree on certain things. There was nothing there that would be a basis for any allegation of treason. Even the critics say there’s nothing there,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a Palace press briefing.
“First, the agreement is just an agreement to agree. It’s just a framework, as correctly stated by the secretary of foreign affairs [Teodoro Locsin Jr]. It will be the basis of negotiations, talking points, and after that there will be an agreement between the two countries,” he added.
In a statement on Saturday, Sison said the signing of the MOU on oil and gas development under the direction of Duterte “is a clear act of treason, a blatant betrayal of the sovereign rights and national patrimony of the Philippines and the Filipino people.”
“While it is still arguable that the Memorandum is still merely an ‘agreement to agree’, the Philippines and the Filipino people must effectively reject the Memorandum,” he said.
Sison said the MOU “keeps silent, ignores and sets aside” the 2016 legal victory of the Philippines against China before a United Nations-backed arbitral tribunal which invalidated Beijing’s expansive claim to the South China Sea.
He added “a significant amount of damage has been done by the Duterte regime to the sovereign rights and national patrimony of the Filipino people…By citing the Memorandum, China can now insist ad nauseam and by force that the Philippine government has waste-basketed the final judgment that the mineral and marine resources under the West Philippine Sea belong to the Philippines.”
While Sison was absolutely against the deal, Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, one of the staunchest defenders of Philippine interests in the South China Sea and a foremost expert on the matter, has decided to keep an open mind.
Carpio said provisions of the agreement put the Philippines in a safe position given that Manila would authorize the enterprise that would represent it from those with service contracts in the area.
“Our vehicle are the service contractors. That’s fine because it is clear there that the Philippines has sovereign rights,” he said.
Still, Carpio insisted that any joint exploration activity that will be done in the disputed waters should be on Philippine terms.
“China proposed joint exploration [which] means partner kayo but in the Constitution, the state shall have full control and supervision,” he said. (ABS-CBN News/PN)
