Revival of Spratlys oil deal pushed

Former House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. on Wednesday urged President Benigno Aquino III to revive an oil and gas exploration agreement among the Philippines, Vietnam and China to ease tensions in the disputed area of the West Philippine Sea, or South China Sea for China, and East Sea for Vietnam.

Based on his formula, De Venecia said the Philippines, China and Vietnam should declare “open seas” or agree to “temporarily shelve” their issues on sovereignty on the Spratlys, demilitarize the area and convert it into a peace zone and divide equally among the three gains from a new joint marine seismic undertaking (JMSU).

De Venecia said a key modification in the 2005 JMSU would be the explicit exclusion of the Philippines’ Recto Bank (called Reed Bank by China) from the agreement considering that this was only 157 kilometers (85 nautical miles) away from Palawan and 925 km (500 nautical miles) from the Chinese mainland.

De Venecia, whose wife took over his seat in Congress, expressed hopes that Mr. Aquino would support his formula and take it up in his state visit to China.

As founding chair of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties, De Venecia said he met with top political officers of the two countries—Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary Nguyen Duc Manh and his predecessor Nguyen Phu Thong, and Ai Ping, vice minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China—who he claimed were “agreeable” to his proposals.

In a press conference at his South Forbes mansion, De Venecia claimed that the joint exploration of the Spratlys was first proposed by China’s Deng Xiaoping himself and that the late President Corazon Aquino thought it was a practical idea when he brought it up in 1986.

De Venecia was the brains behind the JMSU signed six years ago which was criticized by some quarters as a concession to China in exchange for $2 billion in cheap loans programmed by the Arroyo administration to bankroll the NorthRail and SouthRail projects, and the corruption-laced NBN-ZTE broadband deal.

The exploration undertaken by Philippine National Oil Co., Petro Vietnam and China’s CNOOC in 2006 confirmed Spratlys’ potential for oil and gas production, he said.

De Venecia said it was now time to revive the JMSU to include drilling and expanding the exploration contract to include other minor claimants such as Malaysia and Brunei.

He said that rising oil prices and mounting fears of a global war between China and the United States should compel all countries that a peaceful resolution to the dispute was the only solution.

De Venecia likened his formula to the manner the United Kingdom, Norway and Germany carved up the North Sea through peaceful negotiations that led to “oil flowing to Teeside in England, and Stavanger in Norway and gas to Bremen in Germany.”