A Chinese oil deal draft? It should’ve been Filipino, says Locsin

If Malacañang’s communications team doesn’t care about China drafting an agreement for Beijing and Manila to jointly explore waters inside the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the country’s top diplomat says that he does.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. aired this sentiment on the issue in a Twitter post on Wednesday morning.

“Palace Com doesn’t care if it is a Chinese draft? I fu*k*n* care!” Locsin’s tweet said.

For the secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, a framework or draft for exploring the Philippine EEZ should have been done by Filipinos.

He added: “A framework or architecture for gas and oil in our part of the sea demands the draft be MINE…MIO…FILIPINO.”

Locsin spoke out after Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said that it “[d]oesn’t matter who drafted” the joint agreement to explore disputed territories for oil and other minerals.

“Doesn’t matter who drafted it. As far as we’re concerned, if you give us a draft then we will go over it,” Panelo told media on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018.

Panelo was reacting to the move of opposition senators Senators Francis Pangilinan and Antonio Trillanes IV to conduct a Senate inquiry regarding the matter was “premature.”

READ: Palace: Release of documents on oil deal with China ‘premature’

On Monday, Pangilinan and Trillanes filed Senate Resolution 943, asking the Senate Committee on Energy to investigate the potential deals on oil and gas exploration in the West Philippine Sea.

READ: Duterte asked to show oil-gas exploration deal first before signing

Presidents Rodrigo Duterte and Xi Jinping witnessed the signing a memorandum of understanding for oil and gas development cooperation during the first day of visit of the Chinese president in the country.

Locsin and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi signed the memorandum. /cbb

READ: PH and China sign MOU on oil and gas development, 28 other deals