SC urged to rule on 2008 joint exploration petition

MANILA, Philippines — As the Philippines and China forged a deal for joint exploration in the South China Sea, militant party-list group Bayan Muna yesterday asked the Supreme Court to rule on its 10-year-old petition questioning the constitutionality of a similar agreement.

In a 12-page motion, Bayan Muna chairman Neri Colmenares urged the high court to resolve their petition filed in 2008 that challenged the constitutionality of the Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) signed by then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo with China and Vietnam in 2005.

Bayan Muna said the SC should now rule on the case to effectively block the joint exploration agreement on the West Philippine Sea signed by President Duterte with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The agreement was signed during the Chinese leader’s two-day state visit in the country on Tuesday.

Bayan Muna alleged this agreement is “unconstitutional like the JSMU, considering the pronouncements from Malacañang that the government will agree to a 60-40 sharing deal, contrary to the constitutional mandate that the exploration, development, and utilisation of natural rejoices shall be under full control and supervision of the State.”

“Any joint exploration with any foreign country or entity that allows almost absolute control over the benefits of the exploration to such foreign country or entity is detrimental to the Filipino people and therefore must not be allowed,” read the pleading.

The group further argued the latest agreement “further weakened” the territorial claims of the country in the South China Sea despite its victory in the protest against China before the United Nations-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016.

“We are apprehensive that the new joint exploration deal with China may be unconstitutional and might bury the Philippines in debt to the very country that has rapaciously built islands and occupied our seas in defiance of our sovereign rights in the WPS,” Colmenares told reporters.

The group reiterated their plea for the SC to declare the JSMU as null and void for violating the 1987 Constitution.

While the JMSU already expired in July 2008, petitioners stressed the high court should still rule on the constitutional issues raised in the petition which remain relevant in the Duterte administration.

Bayan Muna earlier filed a petition for certiorari and prohibition seeking to void the deal between the Philippine National Oil Co., China National Offshore Oil Corp. and Vietnam Oil and Gas Corp. in 2008. The case was supposed to be submitted for resolution in 2010.

Under the JMSU, the Philippines, China and Vietnam through their respective national oil corporations agreed to conduct joint explorations of the disputed South China Sea even though up to 80 percent of the JMSU site is within the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone.