Supreme Court: PH’s 2005 joint exploration deal with China, Vietnam unconstitutional

by tetCh torres-tupas Inquirer.net

MANILA – The Supreme Court on Tuesday declared the country’s 2005 Tripartite Agreement for Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) with China and Vietnam unconstitutional.

Voting 12-2-1, which took 14 years, the SC said the JSMU violated the Constitution for allowing wholly-owned foreign corporations to explore the country’s natural resources without observing the safeguards provided in Section 2, Article XII of the 1987 Constitution.

The JMSU was signed in

2005 between China’s National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), Vietnam’s Oil and Gas Corporation (PETROVIETNAM), and the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC).

Under the undertaking, joint explorations will be conducted in the South China Sea, covering 142,886 square kilometers. The agreement covers six islands claimed and occupied by the Philippines in Spratly, such as Pag-Asa Island, Likas Island, Lawak Island, Kota Island, Patag Island, and Panata Island.

But, up to 80 percent of the JMSU site is within the Philippines’ 200mile exclusive economic zone, prompting the filing of petitions seeking to declare the agreement unconstitutional.

Respondents, however, argued that Section 2, Article XII of the Constitution was inapplicable because it contemplates the exploration, development, and utilization (EDU) of natural resources while the JMSU only involves pre-exploration activities.

The SC, through Associate Justice Samuel Gaerlan, said that the term “exploration” pertained to a search or discovery of something in both its ordinary or technical sense and ruled that the JMSU involves the exploration of u PAGE 5