Analysts cite Manila focus shift to energy
By Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza, Reporter
THE APPOINTMENT of a former Energy official to the National Maritime Council signals a renewed focus on harnessing areas of the South China Sea within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ), according to a security analyst.
Chester B. Cabalza, founding president of International Security and Development Center, said energy security could become the focus of the government in the coming months.
“That is one of the gray areas in our cause in the West Philippine Sea,” he said in an e-mail, referring to areas of the disputed sea within the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). “It could be possible that exploration of energy at sea would be the thrust of this administration which is important in a blue economy.”
The presidential palace on Friday said former Energy Undersecretary Alexander Lopez had been appointed spokesman of the National Maritime Council (NMC), which was created earlier this year to boost the country’s maritime security and domain awareness amid worsening tensions with China.
The council was a predecessor of the 10-member National Coast Watch Council.
The palace said Mr. Lopez, a retired military official, “will speak on behalf of the NMC when it comes to issues surrounding the West Philippine Sea.”
Don Mclain Gill, an international relations lecturer at De La Salle university, said Mr. Lopez’s appointment “may add more nuance” to the country’s efforts to explore and exploit gas and oil within its EEZ.
“The energy resources of the West Philippine Sea have always been a focus of Manila,” he said in a Facebook Messenger chat. “However, the challenge toward attaining proper operational planning is hindered by Chinese expansionism.”
There’s been an increasing call for the Philippines to start drilling for oil and gas at Reed Bank, which is believed to hold as many as 5.4 billion barrels of oil and 55.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, amid the expected depletion of the country’s sole indigenous gas field by 2027.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. in December cited the need to resolve issues in the South China Sea so the Philippines could start joint exploration for gas and oil in the waterway before the Malampaya gas field gets depleted.
Very little progress had been made since the country started negotiating with China for joint oil and gas exploration, he told Japanese media during his visit to Tokyo.
Mr. Gill said despite efforts by the Philippines to focus on the economic aspects of its sea claim, “energy will remain a securitized issue especially for Beijing.”
“That is because China is expansionist,” he said. “It feels that it owns everything and therefore, everything we do will be perceived as a security issue.”
“Even the energy exploration negotiations under the Duterte administration failed because China wanted terms that were against our Constitution,” he said. “You can only cooperate functionally with countries that know how to forge trust-based relations.”
Mr. Cabalza urged the NMC to work with stakeholders in implementing a proposed law that will create archipelagic sea lanes and prescribe the obligations of foreign ships and aircraft passing through them.
The measure passed by the Senate on final reading last week defines the “right of innocent passage” as the “continuous and expeditious passage of foreign vessels through the territorial sea that is not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the Philippines.”
A Philippine task force handling the country’s dispute with China last week said the bill would bring attention to the “proper scope” of the Philippine maritime domain and the “need for strategic investments in maritime security, maritime domain awareness, maritime law enforcement, sustainability of marine resources and protection of the marine environment.”
The late Benigno S.C. Aquino III in 2014 appointed Mr. Lopez head of the military’s Western Command, which oversees many parts of the country’s western front, including the Philippine EEZ in the South China Sea.
The NMC replaced the National Coast Watch Council, which Mr. Aquino created a year before a standoff with China over the Scarborough Shoal.
The council, which has been convened twice since its creation, is the “central body in charge of formulating policies and strategies to ensure a unified, coordinated and effective governance framework for the country’s maritime security and domain awareness.”
Mr. Marcos increased the number of agencies supporting the council to 13 from nine, including the space agency and the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and the Law of the Sea.
Mr. Lopez served as Energy undersecretary from 2018 to 2022 and was a consultant of the agency from 2017 to 2018.