Philippine Court Rules Disputed Sea Exploration Deal With China, Vietnam ‘Unconstitutional’

An aerial photo taken through a glass window of a Philippine military plane shows the alleged on-going land reclamation by China on Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, west of Palawan, Philippines, on May 11, 2015. Ritchie B. Tongo/Pool/Reuters

The Philippine Supreme Court (SC) ruled on Jan. 10 that the country’s 2005 oil exploration deal with China and Vietnam was unconstitutional for allowing foreign entities to exploit natural resources in Philippine territories in the South China Sea.

The Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) was signed on Mar. 14, 2005, by state-run Philippines National Oil Company, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, and Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation, covering 55,169 square miles of sea area.

SC said the JMSU was deemed unconstitutional because it allowed foreign corporations wholly owned by China and Vietnam to undertake natural resource exploration in the Philippine waters without proper safety procedures.

“The court further held that as the JMSU involves the exploration of the country’s petroleum resources, it falls within the ambit of Section 2, Article XII of the 1987 Constitution,” SC said in a statement.

The section stipulates that all lands of public domain, waters, minerals, coal, petroleum, and other mineral oils—including all forces of potential energy, fisheries, forests or timber, wildlife, flora and fauna, and other natural resources—are owned by the state.

The decision comes a week after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told Chinese leader Xi Jinping that his country is willing to resume negotiations for joint oil exploration in the South China Sea.

“I would very much like, as you have suggested, Mr. President, to be able to announce that we are continuing negotiations and that we hope that these negotiations will bear fruit because the pressure upon not only China, not only the Philippines but the rest of the world to move away from the traditional fronts of power,” Marcos Jr. said during his bilateral meeting with Xi on Jan. 4.

Xi asked the Philippine leader to “draw out a blueprint with China-Philippines cooperation in the new era” as he sought to deepen relations to “bring more benefits to our people and contribute to peace and stability in the region.”

The two countries signed 14 bilateral agreements during the meeting, including deals on agriculture, infrastructure, development cooperation, maritime security, and tourism, among others.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) claims the majority of the South China Sea under its so-called “nine-dash line,” despite a 2016 ruling by an arbitration tribunal in The Hague that sided with the Philippines and ruled that the CCP’s claims lacked any legal basis.

But the Philippines has been unable to enforce the ruling and has since filed hundreds of protests over what it calls encroachment and harassment by the CCP’s coast guard and its vast fishing fleet.

Aside from the Philippines and China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei have all made their own overlapping claims in the South China Sea.

Reuters contributed to this report.