The Philippines has abandoned joint oil exploration talks with China amid tensions in the West Philippine Sea, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said.
Locsin, in his speech during the 124th anniversary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, said President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the termination of the bilateral oil and gas discussions.
“The President has spoken. I carried out his instructions to the letter. Oil and gas discussions are terminated completely. Nothing is spending. Everything is over,” he said.
“Three years on and we have not achieved our objective—developing oil and gas resources so critical for the Philippines, but not at the price of sovereignty. Not even a particle of it,” he added.
Locsin admitted he “got as far as it is Constitutionally possible to go” in hammering out a deal with his Chinese counterpart.
“I tried for three years to come to an agreement, to facilitate exploration for, and exploitation of oil and gas in the WPS,” Locsin said.
“One step forward from where we stood, on the edge of the abyss, is a drop into Constitutional crisis. That explains the sudden pullback of my part which unraveled three years of sincere hardwork on the part of Wang Yi and me,” he added.
Locsin said the defense of the country’s sovereignty was now in the hands of the administration of President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“It remains with the new administration to protect our sovereignty all the way… but now I can rest. The irreducible template of what is Constitutionally possible is there in black-and-white,” he said.
“Surrender of any portion of Philippine sovereignty is not an option. Not for love. Not for money,” Locsin added.
He likened the task of holding foreign intruders accountable to drawing “a blood-red line in the WPS.”
“Firing diplomatic protests to intruders in our waters, not missing a single transgression,” he said.