An organization of Filipino fishermen has rejected China’s proposal for joint fishing expeditions in Philippine waters.
Meanwhile, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said the possibility of a joint oil exploration between China and the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) would only materialize if the China recognizes the Philippine Constitution.
“Even without the benefit of our scrutiny, we know that nothing beneficial for Filipino fishers could come out from China’s proposed partnership with local fishing villages,” the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said in a statement.
National Security adviser Clarita Carlos has disclosed that China offered partnership with Filipino fishermen.
Carlos said China raised the possibility of a partnership with the Philippines’ fishing groups, adding this was among the things proposed to resolve the WPS territorial dispute following President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.’s visit to Beijing earlier this month.
Pamalakaya said “any agreement with China won’t be accepted by Filipino fishers who were the direct victims of China’s aggression in the WPS.
Filipino fishermen have LONG been enduring China’s harassment in the West Philippine Sea.
In 2019, a Chinese vessel smashed into a Filipino fishing boat, endangering the lives of 22 fishermen onboard.
“We are witnesses how China abuses and plunders the resources in the West Philippine Sea, and how we are being harassed in our own fishing grounds,” Pamalakaya said.
“So how can we enter into an agreement with a country that blatantly violates our fishing rights and our national sovereignty?”
The Philippines and China have long been involved in a maritime dispute as Beijing continues to assert its sweeping claims over the South China Sea, within which is the West Philippine Sea.
China continues to disregard a landmark 2016 arbitral ruling declaring its historical claims over almost the entire South China Sea as having no legal basis.
Pamalakaya also said that the recent ruling of the Supreme Court against the Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) “should serve as a warning to the Marcos administration in entering any agreement with China that could further its presence in our territory.”
“Our Constitution should be the enabling document, and that’s our minimum standard and if China cannot follow that, then this is where the complexity will come in,” Gatchalian said in an interview with ANC.
Gatchalian’s statement came after the Supreme Court on Tuesday declared as unconstitutional the 2005 agreement on joint exploration by the Philippines, China, and Vietnam of an area in the disputed South China Sea.
Gatchalian explained that although the SC ruling upholds the country’s right to be in charge of its territory, it would only bring more complexity to the situation as China would not also drop its territorial claims on WPS.
“What our country and China want to do is to study all the complications and study how to move forward but then again, the Supreme Court decision sets the parameters on what they should be looking at, and it becomes the minimum requirement for any joint exploration moving forward,” Gatchalian said.
“I’m not so optimistic that we can move forward with this joint exploration. It’s good that we are talking. It’s good that we are open to it. But when you go to the nitty gritty of things, especially the governing law that should prevail. I think we will hit a snag with that issue, and I think that the best case here or the best evidence will be what was discussed during the last administration,” he added.
The administration of then President Rodrigo Duterte, he said, had been in talks with China about the exploration for four years and yet, no actual agreement has been reached.
“Obviously, after four years, nothing happened and obviously, it’s more complex than what they thought and obviously, there are a lot of things that they cannot agree on,” the lawmaker said.
One of the things that the two countries could not agree on, Gatchalian said, is which law should govern the joint exploration.
President Marcos and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to resume discussions on oil and gas development.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the two leaders talked about the memorandum of understanding on oil and gas development signed in 2018, assuring that the upcoming discussions would be “building upon the outcomes of the previous talks.”