Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 28) — Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo on Wednesday warned that Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio is unintentionally helping China seize gas resources from the Philippines.
“We can’t stop from noticing that Justice Carpio is finding loopholes when there is none, effectively although unwittingly, coaching the Chinese on what to do in case of a default, such as seizing Philippine gas fields,” he said in a statement.
In an interview on the television network, ANC, Wednesday, Panelo described the Supreme Court’s second highest official as “unpatriotic” for pointing out supposed cracks in the loan agreement between the Philippines and China on the ₱3.69 billion Chico River Pump Irrigation Project, which carries a 2 percent interest rate.
Carpio has been speaking up against the deal, saying that it allowed Beijing to seize “patrimonial assets and assets dedicated to commercial use” of the Philippines. He specifically noted that the Asian giant could take the Reed Bank, a resource-rich area within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, if Manila failed to pay its multi-billion peso debt with Beijing.
Panelo argued that in case of a default of payment, China can get gas from Reed Bank equivalent to the unpaid loan. But he said that this is “improbable, if not impossible” because the country has maintained a good credit standing.
“What that means is that there will be an extraction of gas and oil, a sale of the same and then a portion of the profit therefrom, which will be in the form of money, will be used to pay and satisfy the balance,” he stressed.
Panelo, who also serves as President Rodrigo Duterte’s legal adviser, said the debate on the loan agreement is “trivial and pointless” He said politics should be set aside in an infrastructure project that would benefit thousands of farmers.
The government granted a local company, Forum Energy Ltd., a contract to drill for oil in the Reed Bank, which is also being claimed by China. In 2014, then President Benigno Aquino ordered a stop to all oil exploration activities in disputed waters after a Chinese ship harrassed a Forum ship drilling in the Reed Bank. The company urged President Rodrigo Duterte to lift the moratorium in December 2018, but it remains in place.
