MANILA, Philippines -- The Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) is a positive endeavor for all the claimants to the Spratly Islands, and not a sellout of Philippine sovereignty, according to Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo.

?As it indicates, it is a marine seismic undertaking that will go on until 2009, and it is going very well,? Romulo said in an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer during the Feb. 25 anniversary celebration of the 1986 revolt at the People Power Revolution Monument on EDSA (Epifanio delos Santos Avenue), Quezon City.

?I think the efforts look good. That?s why [we should] wait until we have the final report on the JMSU,? he said.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, who was present at the EDSA I anniversary celebration, said the JMSU had enabled the Philippines, China and Vietnam to focus, not on their conflict over the Spratlys, but on joint studies of marine resources.

Ermita said all the claimant-countries were expected to benefit from the success of the tripartite undertaking.

?The important thing is we must be able to maintain harmony among nations, so that we?ll not talk about confrontation,? he said.

Romulo denied that the agreement was undertaken to favor China in exchange for loans and investments in the Philippines.

?The purpose of that -- as we had agreed with then Chairman Deng Xiaoping when he was meeting with then Vice President and Foreign Secretary Salvador Laurel -- is that we should convert the Spratlys, the South China Sea, from an area of conflict to a zone of peace and development,? he said.

Romulo said the JSMU was already in place when he became foreign secretary. (He was named to the post on Aug. 23, 2004.)

He said that on his first official visit to China, its foreign minister recalled to him the agreement between Deng and Laurel.