Sovereignty must be the cornerstone of all the discussions in the joint exploration and development of resources in the South China Sea (SCS), President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said Friday.

Marcos issued the statement after the recent announcement of China’s national oil giant China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) that it made an oilfield discovery with a volume of 100 million tons in the SCS.

Marcos said the Philippines’ sovereignty, sovereign rights, and territorial jurisdiction should be taken into account, when asked if he is eyeing the revival of negotiations for a joint exploration deal with China after the reported oil discovery.

“Well, look, once again, the sovereignty and the sovereign rights and our territorial jurisdiction remain the key in all of these talks, and we cannot, we cannot at any point, somehow compromise the territorial integrity of the Philippines,” Marcos said in an interview in Prague, Czech Republic on Friday night (Manila time).

“So that is going to be the main principle behind any kind of talks that we might have. So, depending on areas that we are talking about, that will come into play. So let me leave it at that. That is the guiding principle that I’m following whenever it comes to all of these things.”

On March 8, the CNOOC announced that through continued exploration, the new reserve was found in the Kaiping South Oilfied, 300 km. off the coast of Guangdong province in the south of China.

The proved in-place volume of the oilfield reached 102 million tons of oil equivalent, the CNOOC said, adding that the exploratory well has been tested to produce an average of approximately 7,680 barrels of crude oil and 0.52 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

Not instigating disputes

Meanwhile, Marcos denied that there was an attempt from the Philippines to provoke conflict in the SCS.

This was after Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin on Thursday called on the Philippines to “stop misleading the international community and using the SCS issue to instigate disputes.”

Marcos said he is not aware of any instance when the Philippines “has instigated anything, at any point, both verbally, or militarily, or diplomatically.”

“We did not begin all of these problems. All of these commotions were not caused by the Philippines. So, I don’t know what they are referring to,” he said. (PNA)

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