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THERE has been a lot of hue and cry about the Joint
Marine Seismic Undertaking signed in 2004 by the Philippines with
China, and in 2006 by the Philippines with China and Vietnam.
The JMSU is a major diplomatic
coup for China. To me, it allows China to station vessels, troops
and garrisons in the disputed Spratlys archipelago in the guise of
escorting vessels conducting seismic surveys of the area. Since the
Philippines claims the Kalayaan part of the Spratlys, in effect
Manila allows the Chinese to enter Philippine territory, as defined
in the 1898 Treaty of Paris, and as defined in the Exclusive
Economic Zone under the UN Law of the Sea, in the guise of
conducting seismic surveys.
Signatories in the JMSU agreement
were the state-owned Philippine National Oil Co., the China National
Offshore Oil Co. and Petro Vietnam. The idea behind the accord is
that instead of quarreling or even conducting a war over a common
area of interest, the Philippines, China and Vietnam can derive
economic use of the controversial islands, islets and waters, first,
by conducting surveys, initially as seismic, to determine the size
of the structures and next, as exploration, to determine, if
possible, the presence of oil, gas and precious minerals. Fisheries,
of course, is a given.
Now, did President Arroyo commit
treason when her government entered into the JMSU? I believe she
didn’t.
But GMA lost tactical and
strategic initiatives by giving in to the Chinese because the latter
now in effect occupies the areas and navigational waters in the
guise of making seismic surveys. In territorial and land disputes,
occupation is 90 percent of the game. China is modernizing a
blue-water navy that will soon be the envy of the world and that
navy will ply the South China Sea. China thinks in terms of
millennia in claiming territories and waters. It has one virtue not
many nations possess—patience. It thinks that since the South
China Sea was named after China, then it owns all the islands and
waters inside it. The Philippines lies in the South China Sea.
Just what is the Spratlys? Then-Sen.
Kit Tatad in a speech before the Senate as chairman of its Foreign
Relations Committee made a useful backgrounder on the Spratlys. He
quoted the Vietnam Commentary, a Singapore-based publication, which
said the Spratlys are 33 islands and more than 400 mostly barren
islets and atolls. Other sources put the number at 53 islands and
more than 230 islets, atolls, reefs, sand cays and rocks, of which
only 180 have names. The archipelago is claimed by seven
countries—the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia,
Brunei and France. The first four countries apparently have troops
stationed in the area.
The Chinese call the Spratlys
Nan-Sha. We call our share of the islands Kalayaan (Freedomland),
the biggest being Pagasa, 450 miles from Manila and 235 miles from
Palawan. I have visited Pagasa twice. With a 1.8-km runway, it is
more than two hours flying time by small plane. So vast is the
waters that a pilot uninured to the area and using small planes will
easily get lost or suffer from vertigo. Pagasa is a complete
municipality with about, as of last count, 200 voters. It is the
closest to a self-sustained military village we can have.
I do not like the way former PNOC
President Eduardo Manalac justifies the need for a JMSU with the
Chinese He thinks in terms of pesos and centavos, dollars and cents.
Territories are not about money. They are about sovereignty, about
patrimony, about the future, which cannot be valued in any currency.
He thinks if there is oil in the area, then we can save a lot of
dollars. He thinks that if the Chinese spend money looking for oil
in the area, then it will save us a lot of money. Wrong.
Fortunately, the Senate will look
into the JMSU. Unfortunately, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee is
the one conducting the investigation. This implies wrongdoing. The
JMSU is not—yet.
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