MANILA – “Not one centimeter” of the Philippines’ sovereignty will be compromised under a memorandum of understanding on oil and gas cooperation between Manila and Beijing, a Filipino official said.
The MOU signed during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit this week merely calls for “cooperation” and is “not yet a contract,” Energy undersecretary Donato Marcos said.
Foreign Affairs secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. made the MOU public last week and described it as an “agreement to agree.”
“Hindi makokompromiso ang kahit isang sentimetro ng soberenya at karapatan ng mamamayang Pilipino,” Marcos said. “Babalangkasin pa po ang pinaka-framework nito. Wala pa pong spesipikong mga probisyon.”
President Rodrigo Duterte “will not allow” the Philippines to be on the losing end of the MOU, Marcos said, in response to a question. Government agencies collaborated for Manila’s inputs to the agreement, he said.
The two countries will set up an inter-governmental joint steering committee that will be “responsible for negotiating and agreeing the cooperation arrangement and maritime areas to which it will apply,” Locsin said. (ABS-CBN News)
