The US proxy war plot and the SC

AS I observe the reverberations from the Supreme Court’s controversial and suspiciously timed decision and announcement on the 2005 Joint Marine Seismic Understanding (JMSU) case declaring the exploration joint venture unconstitutional, I thought of the dreams of economic development of our nation and how it would be sabotaged by this twisted decision if not corrected.

The Reed Bank or Recto Bank joint oil-gas exploration and exploitation deal between China and the Philippines puts the latter as beneficiary of 60 percent of the proceeds from the oil and gas resources of the disputed area. Even the US Geological Survey said the reserve there is upwards to five times bigger than that of Saudi Arabia, which remains the world’s top oil producer. Imagine all the development dreams the Philippines can attain with that amount of resources.

With this untapped wealth, it can guarantee peace in the region from our cooperation with China that would assure us of energy independence.

Filipinos can really enjoy the sovereignty it longed for even hundreds of years before the 1896 Revolution which suffered an ill-fated end at the hands of imperialist America. Is the Supreme Court causing the same repetition of history by its abortion of the joint oil-gas deal?

A false sense of patriotism is behind the campaign to stop cooperation of the Philippines with China.

Vietnam, which is also part of the JMSU, had bloody naval skirmishes with China but finally accepted the win-win formula of China – cooperation and joint exploration and development, such as its joint exploration with China in the Beibu Gulf, and PetroVietnam and CNOOC (China’s State oil company) SCS joint venture. So do Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei.

The suspicions over the timing of the announcement is reinforced by the quick publication of the Manny Pangilinan owned Business World to editorialize that the government of President Bongbong Marcos should now be tied to this decision, as its editorial said “It is incumbent upon the president and his team to abide by the framework set by this decision.”

A serious review of the decision would reveal outright the flaw of the decision as argued by Atty. Harry Roque, a known international law expert, who cited the precedent La Bugal ruling which provides that the President could enter into agreements with foreign entities for large-scale explorations. This is based on Article XII, section 2 of our 1987 Constitution which states:

“The President may enter into agreements with foreign-owned corporations involving either technical or financial assistance for large-scale exploration, development, and utilization of minerals, petroleum, and other mineral oils according to the general terms and conditions provided by law, based on real contributions to the economic growth and general welfare of the country. In such agreements, the State shall promote the development and use of local scientific and technical resources.”

We should link this to our preamble which states:

“We, the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid of Almighty God, in order to build a just and humane society, and establish a Government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity, the blessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace, do ordain and promulgate this Constitution.”

Put the two together then and it has become imperative for the President to engage in joint ventures with even foreign-owned entities when it is the optimum way to achieve what the preamble says, that is, “to promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity, the blessings of independence and democracy…”

Without a joint venture with our neighbors, the Philippines will certainly not be able to develop the resources in the Reed Bank area. We should learn from Vietnam.

The Salim Group of Indonesia that is being fronted here by MVP, believes it owns the Republic of the Philippines the way it owns the Yellows, Business World, TV 5, the Inquirer, Meralco, Manila Water, etc.

What else does the Salim group owns? Ah, of course, the souls of Manny Pangilinan, former DFA secretary Albert del Rosario, Justice Antonio Carpio, Rappler, Maria Ressa, and a host of others from the Senate and Congress, the financial authorities, the academe, ad nausea.

Meanwhile, Uncle Sam backs the Salim group praying that talks will fail and it can start its “proxy war” ala Ukraine, that is using us to fight China to the last Filipino.

By the way, it is important to remind everybody who filed the motion to declare the JMSU unconstitutional – Satur Ocampo, Teddy Casiño and lawyered by Neri Colmenares, all dedicated saboteurs of Philippine economic progress, closet communists and strange bedfellows of the Yellows and the U.S. in its goal to keep the Philippines underdeveloped so they can continue to wreak havoc for their own eventual takeover of the country.

Pres. Duterte reminded the nation on March 9, 2022, for the Philippines to honor its commitment to the oil-gas joint exploration deal, which a month later, then DFA secretary Teddy Boy Locsin “terminated.”

Salim’s minions, the Amboys and their local CPP lackeys, err, “allies,” succeeded in the sabotage. They are at it again, but we may yet see a real president now asserting his political will in order to fulfill the constitutional mandate to make our nation peaceful and prosperous.