Gloria Arroyo at Sea With China
by Barry Wain
Posted March 14, 2008
In the wake of my essay in the January/February issue of the REVIEW, “Manila’s Bungle in the South China Sea,” Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has come under increasing fire for her dealings in Beijing. At issue is a hurried trip to Beijing she made in late 2004 to sign a deal, which Vietnam later joined, to open up the contentious South China Sea to a joint seismic study by the three countries’ national oil companies. What few realized until now was just how much Ms. Arroyo gave away.
In my essay I criticized President Arroyo for the unequal and surreptitious nature of the agreement. Philippine politicians, legislators and press have now picked up the issue and are accusing Ms. Arroyo of everything from treason to breaching the country’s constitution and selling out the national patrimony. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have initiated inquiries into the matter.
Many of the critics are seeking to impugn Ms. Arroyo’s motives and link the seismic survey with a running scandal over a $329 million contract for a national broadband network, which was granted to a Chinese company but scrapped by Ms. Arroyo after allegations of bribery and corruption were raised. That deal is also being probed by the Senate. Ms. Arroyo has denied any connection between the two undertakings.
As I pointed out in my essay, and Philippine lawmakers are now complaining, the Philippines made breathtaking concessions in agreeing to the area for study, including sections of its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf not claimed by China and Vietnam. Through its actions, the article said, Manila had broken ranks with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, weakened its own claims to parts of the disputed Spratly Islands and given credibility to Beijing’s legally spurious “historic claim” to most of the South China Sea.
Few details were disclosed when the agreement was reached with China in September 2004, beyond the fact that it would last for three years. Officials remained just as tight-lipped when a protesting Vietnam joined the pact in March 2005. Even the site of the proposed seismic study was kept secret.
In the furor that erupted in the Philippines last month, both agreements were somewhat mysteriously released, along with a map of the site. Some politicians were outraged when it showed that the seismic work is being conducted partly inside the 200-nautical-mile Philippine exclusive economic zone. One provision in the three-way agreement, signed by China National Offshore Oil Corp., Vietnam Oil and Gas Corp. (known as PetroVietnam) and Philippine National Oil Co., specified that “this agreement and all relevant documents, information, data and reports” shall remain confidential during the three-year term and for five years afterwards. The details were not to be disclosed to outsiders, without the written consent of the partners in the project.
Senior Arroyo administration officials have defended the joint seismic study, saying it is consistent with the 2002 Asean-China Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea. Far from being a “sellout,” the officials say, it affirms the political commitment of the three claimant countries to a peaceful and constructive course. The Department of Foreign Affairs, which was not consulted in advance by Ms. Arroyo, also defended the arrangement in a statement issued in early March. But it may have added fuel to the controversy by describing the aim as a joint evaluation of marine resources potential “in the area claimed by participating countries,” which suggests that Manila recognizes China’s claims to areas that clearly legally belong to the Philippines.
A resolution, introduced into the Senate in February by Sen. Antonio F. Trillanes, says that various committees need to investigate and expose “the sordid details of this anomalous transaction.” Citing my REVIEW article and other sources, the resolution says the committees should examine whether Ms. Arroyo sold out the Philippine interest for overpriced Chinese loans for the broadband network and other projects.
Barry Wain, writer-in-residence at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, is a former editor of The Wall Street Journal Asia.
