MANILA, Philippines--Sen. Panfilo Lacson said on Sunday that former Philippine National Oil Co. president Eduardo Mañalac should be summoned to the Senate inquiry on the controversial deal with China and Vietnam for oil exploration in the disputed Spratlys islands, because he was a signatory to the deal.

Mañalac, as PNOC head, signed the Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) with his counterparts in the state oil companies of China and Vietnam three years ago, for oil exploration in areas in the disputed Spratlys islands.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said: "He [Mañalac] is the one who signed the JMSU. I don't think he will sign something that he does not know anything about. It is clear that he should be summoned [to the Senate inquiry] because he is the one who signed the agreement."

Mañalac signed the JMSU together with top officials of the China National Offshore Oil Co. (CNOOC) and Petrovietnam at the Makati Shangri-la Hotel on March 14, 2005.

Senate President Manny Villar, in a dzBB interview, encouraged Mañalac and other officials, including former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., with knowledge of the deal to participate in the Senate's probe of the JMSU deal. De Venecia was the guest of honor during the signing ceremony.

De Venecia is reportedly close to Mañalac and that he was responsible for Mañalac's PNOC appointment. Mañalac has deep roots in China, having worked for Conoco-Philips' Beijing office from 1995 to 2003.

De Venecia and Mañalac's roles in the signing have come under scrutiny after a British oil company, Forum Energy, with a contract with the Department of Energy, to explore oil in the area covered by the JMSU questioned whether the President was properly briefed about the ramifications of the contract.

Jose Raymund Apostol, president of Forum Energy's Philippine subsidiary, asked: "Do they have the written authority to sign the agreement?" Forum Energy obtained in 2002 the Geophysical Survey and Exploration Contract No. 101 from the Department of Energy to hunt for oil off the Palawan coast, which was covered by the JMSU.

In his letter to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Mañalac defended the contract. "The JMSU was simply an integral part of the government?s energy independence agenda at the time to find and develop new indigenous petroleum reserves as a hedge against our country?s high dependence on imported petroleum, and the concurrent rise in the prices of oil. It was part of a strategic alliance to promote regional energy security, and to lessen the region?s dependence on Middle East oil," said Mañalac.

Aside from De Venecia, Villar said Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez could provide insights to the deal, considering that she was the chief presidential legal counsel at the time of the JMSU signing. Villar said that former Senate President Franklin Drilon, who led the exposé on Malacañang's concern on the JMSU, would also be invited, although his links to the ACCRA law office, which represented ZTE Corp. in the NBN probe, would be taken in consideration.

In the dzBB interview, Lacson reckoned that Mañalac must explain the impact of the JMSU on the country?s claim to the Spratlys as it reportedly covered not only part of the disputed Spratly Islands being claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, and China but also part of the Philippine territory itself. Lacson said that based on the Annex A of the JMSU, the deal would cover 142,886 square kilometers.

Villar said the JMSU was a "serious" issue considering that the country virtually sold out part of its territory to foreigners. "We are not saying that (President Macapagal-Arroyo) did something wrong here, that is why we are investigating to see if the accusations are right that the JMSU was signed as part of the loan deals with China, a quid pro quo," said Villar. "What is clear is that the government has a lot of explaining to do and the first thing it should do is to provide us a full copy of the contract," the Senate president said.

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, expected the Senate to start its probe on Spratlys on April 28 (when Congress resumes sessions after a month-long Lenten break) with her committee handling the constitutional and legal aspects while the committee on accountability of public officials and investigations taking charge of the criminal aspect.

This early, Santiago has defended the JMSU as "legally feasible" based on the 1990 opinion of then Justice Secretary Franklin Drilon given to Philippines and Australian wildcatters that planned to conduct a similar Offshore Seismic Project.

She quoted Drilon, who ruled: "the project proposal which involves data-gathering, processing, and interpretation techniques envisioned pre-exploration activities which are not covered by constitutional limitations."

"Drilon in 1990 said that a seismic project with Australia was legally feasible. Now Drilon in 2008 is saying that a similar seismic project with China could be a legal basis for impeaching President Arroyo. He will have to explain his mental calisthenics before the committee,? said Santiago who expected Drilon to be summoned in the Spratlys probe.

"In 1990, Drilon approved not only the seismic project, but even a service contract with a foreign country for the use of petroleum resources. By contrast, in 2008, Drilon implies that a similar seismic project, without a service contract is already illegal and exposes the President to impeachment. This is a flip-flop that shows intellectual inconsistency,? she said

Santiago questioned Drilon's "timing" in criticizing the deal three years after it was signed. "Why is it only now that it is being assailed as alleged presidential misconduct? What is the basis for the charge by a foreign writer that it is an alleged sellout? The anti-Arroyo campaign should not be turned into an anti-China campaign. We should consign power plays to the domestic arena. International relations and diplomacy are too important to our national interest to be used as partisan political ploys. It takes decades to build up good interstate relations,? she said.

Drilon led the Liberal Party in calling for the President to step down in 2005 in support of the "Hyatt 10" Cabinet officials who resigned from the government at the height of the "Hello Garci" scandal. The political crisis that almost brought down Arroyo from power erupted over audiotapes of tapped phone conversations showing that Arroyo followed up her one-million-vote lead with a Commission on Elections officials in the 2004 presidential elections.

But Villar said that a number of senators preferred that the Spratlys probe be given to the committee on national defense and security headed by Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, an opposition senator. Villar himself wanted the Spratlys issue be included as part of the National Broadband Network probe because the ZTE Corp. financing could be part of the compensation for the JMSU signing.

Villar said most senators were wary of a plan for the Senate to conduct a Spratlys probe in tandem with the House of Representatives.

"We'll have to get their reaction first if they want to do it with the House. This is one issue that I have to consult my colleagues because we all know the lower chamber is controlled by the administration. Although our foreign relations is brilliant, she might be influenced, considering the lower chamber will have an equal voice in the probe," said Villar.