The Malampaya template

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

4/27/2012

One headline declared, "RP to bring Panatag Shoal dispute to US," citing the upcoming meeting of Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin with top US defense officials scheduled late this month. Just what do they think will this bring to the Philippines — aid or ridicule? Frankly, I see us only getting the latter — if not openly, then the suppressed snickers of neighbors and many in the world.

The Philippines is certainly not showing the self-respect and confidence Vietnam displayed in its face-off with China. But with the kind of leadership this country has been getting, should there be any surprise there?

Another question is, what can the Philippines really expect from the US, other than the mischievous, ambiguous comments of its representatives? It was reported in the funniest manner by some local newspapers that "A senior US commander in the Pacific reaffirmed the United States' mutual defense treaty with the Philippines Sunday amid increased tensions between the archipelago and China. In the strongest comments yet… on the South China Sea dispute, Commander of the US Marines in the Pacific Lt. Gen. Duane Thiessen said the Philippines and US were bound by a military agreement… 'which guarantees that we get involved in each other's defense and that is self explanatory…'"

Self-explanatory he says. Well, coming from a Marine, that's explanatory enough. Ever wondered why they invented the wisecrack, "Tell that to the Marines?" Now, we Filipinos should know — from the mouth of a US Marine.

If anyone needs to be reminded, the US declined to assist the Philippines when our country was defending its life against the foreign-funded Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), or when we were fighting tooth and nail to reclaim Sabah.

The Scarborough affair brings the issues of Philippine territory to the forefront again, and mainly for one fundamental reason — economic resources. There would be much less controversy over those shoals if it were not the fact that vast amounts of increasingly valuable fossil fuel resources exist in those areas.

China is the single most common factor in the China Sea whose historical and argued legal claims cover areas most Asean countries also individually lay claim to. But over the past decade, China and the Asean have in concert made determined efforts to emphasize that the territorial disputes will be settled peacefully through negotiations.

The firmest arguments have been between Vietnam and China, and lately the Philippines and China. Vietnam has proceeded to explore oil in areas disputed with China, but guess what — with Russia and India. China objects but what can it do against Vietnam's ventures with two other members of Brics (the grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa)? That's political savvy if you ask me. And, unlike the Philippines, Vietnam isn't staking its bets with a very bad partner like the US.

The Philippine diplomatic and military officialdom's straight path to Washington's defense door, seeking solutions to what is mainly an economic issue, is inexplicable. There is basis to believe that this scenario is really being set up by the US itself, using the usual Philippine stooges that the former colonial power still maintains.

The United States seems to be totally in control of Philippine initiatives with regard to territorial and economic issues, especially in our disputes with China. The situation is such that we hear from Chinese-Filipino sources close to mainland Chinese businessmen (like those recently feting new generation Asean overseas Chinese tycoons here in Manila), as well as Chinese embassy officials here and in Beijing, that China is frustrated with BS Aquino III's constant refusal to engage in sincere dialog, given that it is ready to offer very generous conciliation terms, giving credence to the word that China considers the Philippines a cause lost to the US.

The Philippine government is exhibiting on the Scarborough and South China Sea disputes a strategy that is clearly centered on using the US as a counterweight, which will necessarily commit the Philippines to binding with US interests. There is by now a template for such a situation — Malampaya.

The Malampaya gas-to-power project off Palawan is where the Philippines gets only a 10-percent share while British and US interests, namely, Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron-Texaco, gobble up 90 percent. But get this: The disposition of paltry Philippine royalty revenues are even being redirected, on orders of Uncle Sam, to such worthless purchases as the vintage US Hamilton cutters (renamed BRP Gregorio del Pilar), announced by Navy Adm. Jose Luis Alano as being used not to stem smuggling or other forms of economic sabotage but to secure Malampaya.

Thus, if we go by this Malampaya template, Filipinos will be losing out again in very one-sided and onerous deals on Scarborough and other areas if these are bound to US dictates as expected.

China and the Philippines can and will have a win-win strategy, but only if Philippine authorities break away from US-centered and inspired conflict strategies and begin opening sincere dialogues with Beijing.

Manila will immediately begin to hear sweet music as China invests its huge dollar reserves and offers sharing deals that are 10 times better than Malampaya. With a new, better deal, the Philippines can in turn start telling Shell and Chevron to go to hell unless they agree to a 50/50 sharing of earnings, lest the whole gas facility be nationalized, just as what Argentina did to Spain's Repsol Oil.

With such a move, China can only highlight the imperial iniquity of Western deals with the Third World and win the goodwill of all nations without any rumbles of war, while the Philippines will get an instant leverage against unilateral and onerous Western-styled PPP (Public-Private Partnership) deals that are inimical to all Filipinos.

(Tune in to 1098AM, dwAD, Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m.; watch Destiny Cable GNN's HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m., on "China, Chito, and Us Filipinos," with China expert Chito Sta. Romana; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio archives)