Amid the issues surrounding the joint oil and gas exploration agreement between the Philippines and China, ousted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno urged the government to strengthen its resolve to “fight” for the country’s territory.
“Citizens ask: Of all the energy partners that PH could have chosen, why did our President choose the country with the strongest motivation and means to get what is ours?” Sereno said in a statement on Thursday.
“It’s quite basic – you choose as allies those whose interests do not constitute adverse territorial claims,” she added.
Sereno also questioned why the government chose to partner up in a joint oil and gas exploration in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) with a country “who can use that partnership to assert its claim of ownership of what’s in the area.”
“First, give the best effort to make China sign a waiver or acknowledgement, Mr. President,” she said.
“Words to that effect will do. Don’t say at the get-go that it can’t be done,” she added.
Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping witnessed the. signing of 29 bilateral agreements which included a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Cooperation on Oil and Gas Development between the Philippines and China.
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The Philippines and China are locked in a longstanding maritime dispute over the South China Sea with Beijing claiming nearly the entire South China Sea, including parts of the WPS. /muf