Jim Gomez, Associated Press, Manila, Philippines
The Philippines received bids Tuesday to explore for oil and gas deposits in two South China Sea areas also claimed by China, which already had protested the potential contracts as an infringement on its territorial rights.
The Philippines has dismissed China's claims, saying the offshore areas lie well within the Philippines's internationally-recognized 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, where it has sole right to exploit resources under a U.N. convention.
China is claiming to own waters that lie very near the Philippines, including one area just 79 kilometers (49 miles) northwest of Palawan province, according to Energy Undersecretary Jose Layug Jr.
The two oil exploration areas for which the bids were received are more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) from the nearest Chinese coast, he said.
"We don't see any problem with what we have done," Layug told a news conference. "These areas are clearly within the sovereign rights of the Philippines."
Energy officials would evaluate the bids and award the contracts within 100 days, he said.
The Department of Energy received bids from the Philippine firm Helios Petroleum and Gas Corporation and a consortium of the state-owned Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corporation, along with Philex Petroleum and PetroEnergy Resources Corporation, Layug told The Associated Press. A fourth bid also received Tuesday involves an undisputed area.
After the Philippines invited investors to bid for the right to explore in the contested waters, the Chinese Embassy delivered a protest note in July last year.
"The Chinese government urges the Philippine side to immediately withdraw the bidding offer in areas 3 and 4, refrain from any action that infringes on China's sovereignty and sovereign rights," China said in a diplomatic note to Manila, adding that the Philippine action "cannot but complicate the disputes and affect stability in the South China Sea."
The two areas lie near another contested offshore region called the Reed Bank, where two Chinese ships tried to drive away a Philippine oil exploration vessel in March last year. A Filipino general deployed two planes to check the incident but the Chinese ships have left when the aircraft reached the bank. The Philippines protested the incident as one of several intrusions by China into its territorial waters that reignited tensions starting last year.
Beijing has been asserting its territorial claims more aggressively as its economic and diplomatic muscle has grown. It virtually claims the entire South China Sea, including offshores areas believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits and which straddle some of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
The other claimants include Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei. Washington has declared the peaceful resolution of the conflicts and freedom of navigation in the contested region to be in its national interest. Many fear Asia's next major armed conflict could erupt in the disputed waters.
Cambodia and the Philippines, meanwhile, have engaged in a war of words over how the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, currently chaired by Cambodia, should deal with the territorial conflicts. The 10-nation bloc includes four of the Southeast China Sea claimants — Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
The Philippines has accused Cambodia, a close ally of China, of being biased in favor of Beijing.
Cambodian Ambassador Hos Sereythonh said in published remarks Monday that the Philippines and Vietnam "wanted to sabotage and hijack" a recent ASEAN meeting to push their territorial claims against China.
Philippine diplomats said they summoned the Cambodian envoy Tuesday but he failed to show up.
3 comments:
the philipines continental shelf argument is inconsistent with cambodia's koh tral island which is only 5 miles from cambodia compare to 100 miles from vietnam. you see, the philipines argument is ignoring khmer people's complaint about vietnam/youn stealing of cambodia's koh tral island. if it's 5 miles from cambodia and 100 miles from vietnam, how could koh tral island belongs to veitnam/youn? makes no sense, just like the way the philipines is accusing china over the issue of the south china sea islands, really. what most khmer people don't understand is what gave vietnam/youn the right to steal koh tral island away from cambodia in the first place? so how if what the philipines is say is fair, how do you say about koh tral island which on the map is much closer to cambodia than to vietnam/youn to belong to vietnam/youn? how do you explain about that? khmer people like me don't understand that at all. just because some were incompetent back then, doesn't give vietnam/youn the right to steal koh tral island from cambodia. so, if you say koh tral island is rightfully belong to vietnam/youn, then all these islands in the south china sea all belong to china as well, you know. you see this argument? so if your argument is vietnam is bigger and more powerful than cambodia, then we can say the same with china way bigger and way more powerful than both the philipines and vietnam/youn countries and people combined, really! so stop whining about china already, ok! cambodia has been there already with vietnam stealing of our beloved koh tral island, you know. learn something about khmer history and you will know better, really.
china gets bids, too!
Philipines armed forces will get crushed in a matter of days if she decided to take on PRC. American will just shows her muscles and that's it. Then Viets will take a more cautious approaches after the Philipinos were crushed. I see no other solutions when these parties DO NOT even talking about sharing. Everyones calmed 100% to these reefs. Sucks when your country us small and weak and larger powerful country decided to take something. Philipines think America is with her to the end. I think not. America had a lots of her own problems such as ECONOMIC RECESSION, WARS, ELECTION, DEBTS owed to China.
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