MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th January, 2023) The Philippine Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the 2005 Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) with China and Vietnam is unconstitutional, as foreign companies ignore safeguards while exploring country's oil resources under the agreement, media reported.
The parties to the deal were the Chinese oil and gas company CNOOC, the Vietnamese Petrovietnam, and the Philippine oil company PNOC. The trilateral agreement provided for cooperation in the South China Sea within an area covering 142,886 square kilometers (55,168 square miles).
The Philippine authorities launched legal proceedings regarding the agreement after some lawmakers called it illegal, saying that some Chinese and Vietnamese foreign companies carried out large-scale exploration of the Philippine oil resources while ignoring the safeguards provided by the Philippine Constitution, The Manila Times newspaper reported. Supporters of the agreement, in turn, argued that the deal involved only pre-exploration activities.
"That the Parties designated the joint research as a 'pre-exploration activity' is of no moment. Such designation does not detract from the fact that the intent and aim of the agreement is to discover petroleum which is tantamount to 'exploration," the court was quoted as saying by the media outlet.
In 2018, Manila and Beijing signed a memorandum of understanding, setting the framework for subsequent talks on joint oil development in the South China Sea. Later, the Philippine government said that the goal of developing oil and gas resources had not been achieved in three years of negotiations.
In June 2022, the Philippines also announced the end of negotiations with the Chinese government on joint oil and gas development, following the instructions of then-President Rodrigo Duterte.
