Philippines told to start drilling oil at Reed Bank amid rising tensions

A FORMER Supreme Court justice on Tuesday renewed his call for the Philippines to start oil exploration at Reed Bank in the South China Sea amid China’s alleged muscle-flexing.

The Chinese Coast Guard’s water cannon attack on Philippine resupply vessels at Second Thomas Shoal on Aug. 5 was a signal that Manila should not send survey ships to Reed Bank, ex-Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio told the ABS-CBN News Channel.

“I think that is connected,” he said. “It’s very clear that they are flexing their muscle to intimidate us not to send our survey and drilling ship to Reed Bank.”

The Chinese embassy in Manila did not immediately reply to a Viber message seeking comment.

Mr. Carpio said the Philippines needs the support of its navy once it sends survey and drilling ships to the bank, a large isolated underwater volcanic mountain with a flat top northeast of the Spratly Islands. It covers an area of almost 9,000 square kilometers.

Mr. Carpio said it is urgent to get oil and gas deposits at Reed Bank amid rising energy costs and the drying up of the Malampaya natural gas field.

“We have no choice but to get the gas in Reed Bank, [otherwise] our economy will suffer tremendously,” he added.

Mr. Carpio said Manila should enter into joint patrols with the US and seek the help of the Philippine Navy when it launches exploration activities at Reed Bank.

The late President Benigno S.C. Aquino III ordered a halt on exploration activities at Reed Bank in 2012 amid rising tensions with China.

His successor, Rodrigo R. Duterte, lifted the suspension in 2020, resuming drilling activities in the disputed water, including Reed Bank, and advancing a 2018 deal with China for joint oil and gas exploration.

In March 2022, months before the end of his six-year term, the tough-talking leader said the Philippines should honor its Reed Bank exploration deal with China to avoid potential “trouble.”

In July, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spotted a swarm of Chinese vessels roaming Iroquois Reef south of Reed Bank.

“Recto Bank, a significant feature for the Philippines holding immense potential for the country’s energy security and economic growth, stands as a focal point in this rising concern over China’s recent behavior,” the AFP said.

The Philippines and US are set to hold joint patrols in the South China Sea this year.

China has been critical of the Philippines’ growing security ties with the US, calling the latter a threat to regional peace after the Marcos government gave it increased access to military bases under their 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, Jr. has said defense arrangements that the Philippines has entered into are “nobody else’s business.”

Reed Bank may hold as many as 5.4 billion barrels of oil and 55.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to a 2013 report from the US Energy Information Administration.

China’s coast guard last week released a video of its ship shooting jets of water at a smaller Philippine boat near Second Thomas Shoal, saying it had handled the incident according to law.

The Aug. 5 video showed the water barely hitting the makeshift Philippine boat that was trying to deliver food and other supplies to Filipino troops stationed at the shoal.

The shoal, which the Philippines calls Ayungin, is a submerged reef in the South China Sea where a handful of its troops live on a rusty World War II-era US ship that Manila intentionally grounded in 1999 to assert it claim.

Second Thomas Shoal is about 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the Philippine island of Palawan and more than 1,000 kilometers from China’s nearest major landmass, Hainan Island.

The Chinese Coast Guard in a website posting said the Philippine boats had entered Second Thomas Shoal illegally. It maintained “rational restraint throughout the process,” it added.

China’s Foreign Ministry has urged the Philippines to remove the outpost from the shoal. China has communicated to the Philippines about the Second Thomas Shoal issue “many times” through diplomatic channels, but its goodwill and sincerity have been ignored, it said last week.

China is willing to handle maritime issues through talks and consultations, the Foreign Ministry said.

Jonathan Malaya, spokesman of the Philippines’ National Security Council, has said the Philippines would never abandon its post at Second Thomas Shoal. — KATA