Locsin: Durterte did not push for oil and gas exploration deal with China

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Locsin Jr. said Thursday that President Rodrigo Duterte did not push the joint oil and gas exploration deal with China.

He said there were “forces” in the government that pushed for the agreement.

Locsin was responding to a question regarding his earlier tweet which “flatly” denied that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) had “any knowledge or participation whatsoever in specific oil and gas deals.”

The said tweet was posted last November 8.

The Department of Foreign Affairs denies flatly that it has any knowledge or participation whatsoever in specific oil and gas deals. Zero. That is not DFA's competence and jurisdiction or role; that is exclusively DOE's. Period. https://t.co/IC7B3Zo8XW

— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) November 8, 2018

“Yeah, there wasn’t any deal. In fact, even in, even, well, frankly, it wasn’t being pushed by the President,” Locsin said over an interview with CNN Philippines’ The Source.

“But, you know, there were forces there saying that we should come to an understanding,” he added.

When asked to elaborate, Locsin just said: “Well, within the government, I cannot say more.”

The interview revolved  around the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by China and the Philippines on cooperatiing on oil and gas development.

READ: PH, China pursue development of energy sources in sea

During the intevriew, Locsin read parts of the MOU, which stated, among others, that there is a working mechanism, which will take effect within 12 months.

The government of both countries will the form a working group that will arrange joint oil and gas development projects.

Each working group will consist of representatives of enterprises authorized by the two governments. It will also create an inter-governmental joint steering committee that will be co-chaired by Locsin and and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi and his Chinese counterpart will serve as the vice-chair of the committee.

Locsin mentioned that he will release the copy of the joint oil and gas development MOU once he gets permission from China.

“Not that they’re asking me to get permission, but I think I owe it to China to have trusted me implicitly to write this as I wanted to,” he said.

Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping witnessed the signing of the joint agreement on oil and gas development agreement on Tuesday during Xi’s two-day state visit to the country.

The MOU was signed together with 28 other bilateral agreements.

Locsin was interviewed as concerns have been raised regarding the nature of the agreements because the drafts have not been furnished to the media. /ee

READ: Draft deal on PH-China sea exploration for oil, gas leaked